Tresdin - All Random (or: the lesbian and the troll)
by sasyst
Summary: Dota fanfic: Tresdin, the Legion Commander, fought in these wars because it was a good way to improve one's skill. But with her luck, she got only males as allies this time. She hated it, all these males who thought she wasn't capable, who always wanted to protect her, who didn't see her as an equal just because she was a woman. And the Shadow Priest, the worst of them. Her luck...
1. Prolog

Dota

Tresdin

All Random

(or: the lesbian and the troll)

by Aditu

The town had two circles. An inner one, which was the safe zone, and an outer one, both surrounded by walls. In the outer circle was the heart of the town that held the town with all its buildings alive. It was guarded with two towers. Around the heart were several houses and barracks, all on higher ground than the area outside the town. The inner circle was only used by merchants and as regeneration point for the top soldiers, the heroes. The merchants sold mostly weapons and armour suited for everyone, who would fight for their home. And fighting they did.

The town and its people were in constant war with their neighbour town and had to defend themselves endlessly. So everyone, male or female, was trained to fight and then sent into battle. It was the only thing they could do, otherwise they would have nothing left. If the heart was destroyed, all buildings of the town would fall apart.

The main goal was to keep the heart of their town safe. And the second one was to attack the enemy, maybe even to destroy the heart of their town. But it was not easy. They had skilled fighters as well and it was an endless struggle, who would become victor of this war. You could not tell, who would win, because the two towns with their soldiers and heroes were equally strong. The balance of power always shifted a little. Depending on which hero was on the field and what items the heroes had been able to buy, the balance could shift with every fight. The heroes were hired from outside to support a town and its soldiers. Both towns were able to hire five heroes, whom they paid and who were resurrected inside of the safe zone with a delay, if they died in one of the fights.

At the present, both towns had still all their towers, in and around the high ground of the heart. There were three ways between the two towns and on each way were two towers of each party. And one more at the three entrances to the towns. If you wanted to destroy the heart you had to get the three towers on one way down and then the two in front of the heart. Five towers minimum. That was not easy to do, because they had some kind of self-defence system, which started firing, as soon as an enemy soldier got into range. Those shots hurt and could easily kill someone, if he or she wasn't strong enough.

Most times, two or three heroes would try to destroy a tower with some soldiers together, to divide the fire power between them all. That way everybody would get injured, but nobody would die. The problem here was, the enemy had soldiers as well, and heroes just as strong. They had to kill them first, preferably not under the tower, but outside of its shooting range. Then they could destroy the building.


	2. Chapter 1

At the beginning of the town war, everything was as it should be. Tresdin, the Legion Commander, bought a few items from the merchant of the town, before she headed directly into the woods. The Commander fought in these wars because it was a good way to improve one's skill. Since no matter what one did, one couldn't die here. Or at least one didn't stay dead.

Normally, at least that was what she had heard, the town wars were some kind of team thing, where all five allied heroes fought together. Tresdin didn't care about that. She did her own thing and just hoped the others didn't get in her way.

She didn't need help and the others had to get along without her help. And so she completely ignored them and headed into one of the two forests in the area. Underneath the trees lived a lot of creatures the Commander could kill. Those kills earned her money and experience, which she needed in the war.

And so it began.

It was as always. The creatures in the woods were no real challenge for her and she hacked through them one after the other. When she thought she had gained enough experience to be able to kill an enemy hero without the slightest risk to her own life, she ran in the direction of the road, where two of her allies were fighting.

She ignored the two males and jumped right at the closest enemy hero, hitting him hard with her weapon. Her allies rushed forward to help her but she concentrated fully on her fight.

When a wave of pink energy hit her, healing some of her wounds, she jerked at the unexpectedness of the act. Then she frowned. It was one thing to help her by hitting the enemy. It was a completely different thing when someone helped by boosting her. It always held this underlying tone of her not being strong enough, not good enough, to do the job on her own.

Of course the enemy hero died, standing no chance against the Commander's blade. Her first duel in this war was won. When she turned around, still frowning, now covered in blood, a troll in pink and purple clothes grinned at her. He had feathers in his hair, a staff in one hand and his face painted. All of it clearly indicated that he was some kind of shaman. He swayed a little on his feet before he leaned more heavily on his staff. "Dazzle." He announced brightly.

The Legion Commander wrinkled her nose. Something was off with the male. But he had definitely been the one to heal her. So she snapped at him. "Don't touch me with your strange magic. I don't need you to heal me and I definitely don't want you to. I'm well capable to care for myself alone." Without waiting for an answer she left the road.

She hated it with a vengeance, all these males who thought she wasn't capable enough, who always wanted to protect her, who didn't see her as an equal just because she was a woman. It weren't only the strong ones, even those who were physically weaker, who were strong because of their magic, did it, too. And she couldn't stand it. Because she was one of the strongest creatures existing, one of the most skilled fighters. She trained every waking minute to be stronger, faster, better than anyone she knew, to be able to win every fight, to defeat every creature she encountered. And she definitely didn't need help for that.

She killed a few more of the beasts in the woods before she headed back to the road. They had to kill the enemy heroes and since the Legion Commander was one of the most skilled heroes here, she knew that it was only sensible to go and do the job from time to time. Besides, the creatures in the woods were no challenge and she wanted to improve in this war. Not run around and kill stupid beasts all the time.

The routine was always the same, she would walk up to the road and stay in the shadows where the enemy couldn't see her but she had a good view on them. She would have a look at the situation, see where the enemy was and where her allies were. And then she would jump out, go for the weakest enemy and kill him. Her timing had to be right so the enemy wasn't able to get away and she had to be careful there weren't too many enemy heroes around. But she had experience with this tactic and as long as nothing totally unforeseeable happened, it worked rather fine.

So now she waited patiently. Then, just there. She jumped in. The Legion Commander forced the enemy into a duel with her, rendering him unable to leave the fight for a few seconds, in which he had to attack her but she attacked him, too. And since she dealt lots and lots of damage, the few tiny hits of him were nothing compared to hers. Again, the enemy hero stood no chance against her blade.

But then, though she had specifically told him not to do it again, the fucking troll healed her again!

As soon as she had made the kill, the body not even dropped to the ground yet, she turned towards the stupid male. He was grinning, the expression exaggerated under the too wide mouth that was painted on his face. "Oh, my, I think I forgot something." Then he laughed, which sounded only slightly crazy. He turned away from her, putting his focus on the enemy soldiers on the road, not paying attention to her anymore.

The Legion Commander didn't know how to react. She was angry, really angry, that this stupid fuck had healed her again. But as she watched him, swaying on his feet and leaning on his staff for balance from time to time, humming something under his breath while the grin was still on his face, she realized he must be on drugs or something. He was a shaman and it wasn't uncommon for them to take drugs. Or so she had heard.

That didn't excuse his behaviour, though, but it explained some of it. Tresdin decided to simply head into the woods again. As she passed the troll, she hissed at him. She would have liked to hit him or shove him or something, but it was impossible in a town war to hurt an ally.

The male looked at her with clouded and half lidded eyes but didn't react otherwise. Wonderful. She not only had to deal with four stupid males as allies in this war but with three stupid males and one stupid and stoned male. Her luck…

The next gank of her wasn't much better. The Legion Commander was able to start the fight with the enemy hero far enough away from the troll so that he didn't reach her in time for his healing wave. She should have known that it wasn't enough to spare her from him, though.

His maniac laugh made a shiver race down the Legion Commander's spine. Then the pink light of the shallow grave, a spell that made the trolls ally immortal for a few seconds, appeared all around her. "Whoops!" The laughter again. "Seems that wasn't necessary."

Tresdin clenched her teeth, her hands grabbing her weapon tightly. How she wished she could hit the fucking troll, just once. That would be enough, at least for now. She would make sure to hit hard enough to knock him out for a long time.

But as it was, she couldn't. And he wasn't chased away by her rudeness or her attempts to frighten him. Though she had snapped at him not to heal her, he had done it. And when she had hissed at him, he hadn't reacted at all. It had to be those damn drugs he always took. She wondered if he was ever not high.

Drugs were something she despised almost as much as she despised males. The only thing worse was males taking drugs. It transformed them into the most disgusting things that existed.

Completely ignoring the idiot behind her, she walked into the forest, praying that he wouldn't follow her.

It was a rough fight. Tresdin had seen one enemy too late and the odds were not perfect. It wasn't too bad, either, but she needed all her concentration. Her hits were precise, her counterattacks brutal, her blocks forceful enough to rattle her enemies. She spun and ducked, hit and parried, her skill unparalleled. She got injured but she dealt so much damage to her enemies that it was only fair they landed a hit or two, too. The Commander was breathing hard but she felt good, it was a good fight, challenging but not impossible to win. The participation of the other ally on the road was okay, not absolutely necessary but not bad either.

When the fight was over, the troll kept casting healing waves and death wards around. All the while he kept laughing, sometimes humming something as he swayed lightly on his feet. The grin on his face was wide and he seemed not to really notice what was happening around him. He stared at Tresdin with wide eyes.

"You are so pathetic!" the Commander hissed, annoyed by his behaviour. "The only thing that is worse than males in general is males taking drugs. Is your life so miserable that you have to take them to bear it?"

The troll laughed. "Oh, not at all. But it makes everything funnier."

"Well, stop it. It transforms you into an insane idiot. " The Legion Commander hissed again before she turned away from him and headed back into the woods. This creature was so not worth even the slightest thought. He was the lowest scum she'd ever met and she just wanted to get away from him.

The Legion Commander kept going through the woods between the fights. The beasts were way too easy to kill by now, but she still gained money from their deaths. She was more carful than at the beginning, though, because the enemy heroes could be expected to gank together and search for her, trying to kill her while she was alone.

So when she saw movement from the corner of her eyes, she jumped away without waiting to see who or what it had been. She ran towards the road where at least two of her allies should be. Tresdin was strong and she could defeat every single enemy hero alone, but not when they were all five together. She'd probably be able to win against two, maybe even three, but five was too much. The Commander knew her skills and she also knew her limitations. She knew when something was an unwinnable fight. And though she was proud, she wasn't too proud to admit when she stood no chance. Because it meant no other creature would be able to win this fight, either. It was no shame then, to say that she couldn't win such a fight alone.

On the road, the first thing she saw was the pink and purple troll. Great.

He turned towards her and Tresdin frowned. Something was different about him. But she didn't have time to think about what had changed because by now she could hear the enemy behind her.

"Stay back, they wanted to gank me and they are surely at least three."

The second ally on the road, the Nightstalker, growled. "Let them come. We'll kill them all. You jump in, I'll follow." His teeth, of which he had way too many to make anyone comfortable while looking at him, were bared and he flexed his claws as if itching to grab something. Or someone.

She supressed an eye roll, because of course she'd jump in, initiate the fight, and the others would follow. No need to tell her something like that.

The first enemy hero crossed through a brighter section underneath the trees. It was barely enough to recognize him and he vanished into the next shadow immediately. Whoever was with him stayed hidden. But the Legion Commander knew that this enemy, the Alchemist, was someone she had to be careful with. Because he could be extremely strong, too. It wasn't a real problem, she just had to take it into account before going into the fight.

Tresdin waited, trying to see who was in the forest, too. She would of course go for the weaker ones first, trying to take them out one after the other as fast as possible. And then she saw her target: something resembling a giant snake, its head held high in the air and something disturbingly looking like green drool dripping from its fangs. Its skin was all green and yellow and it sure as hell had some poison to spread. But it also looked rather easy to kill. Without hesitation, she jumped towards the creature, trapping it in a duel so it was forced to keep fighting against the Commander. It didn't take long to kill it but when she looked up from the dead body of the creature, she grimaced: there were three enemy heroes around her.

Well, it was too late to back off, now, so she could as well go for it. With a battle cry she stormed towards the next enemy, her weapon raised. From then on it was only hit, parry, evade, hit. Breathe through the pain, get going no matter what.

The Nightstalker had joined her at some point, was fighting not far away from her, but it seemed they were losing this fight. The Commander had some trick to trigger a higher regeneration, to be able to heal her wounds faster, but it seemed not to be enough. She was close to being defeated, when a wave of bright pink energy hit her. And though it had saved her, at least for the moment, she felt a flare of irritation. It got even stronger, when she felt the tell-tale energy of the troll as he cast the shallow grave on her, making her truly immortal for a few seconds.

It didn't matter that those two things not only saved her but made them win the war three against four. She was mad nonetheless, mad as hell, as she turned around, barely able to stand due to her wounds.

She bared her teeth at the troll, which was probably not as impressive as when the Nightstalker did it but she knew that she looked fearful enough, especially with all the blood that was dripping from her body. "Stupid troll." She spat the words, her anger palpable.

The man frowned at her, for the first time reacting to her aggressive behaviour towards him.

"Leave him alone, Commander." The deep voice of the Nightstalker was raspy as he neared slowly. He was as injured as her but he was still standing. "The Shadow Priest saved your life, you know that as well as I. You should thank him instead of insulting him."

Of course she knew it but the fact that he had indeed saved her was what had made her angry in the first place. So having the Nightstalker pointing it out again made her wanting to scream and kill something.

"No one wants to hear _your_ opinion." Of course he stood by the troll, he was a male, too. Probably wanted to pat her on the head reassuringly and be done with her. She didn't want to hear anything else, wanted to head into the woods and kill some beasts while she regenerated, while her wounds healed. So she turned away, heading in the opposite direction than the road was.

After a few steps she heard someone behind her. Tresdin whirled around, glaring. "What?"

The troll kept walking while he shrugged his shoulders. "I want to place a ward to give you better vision. So you can see earlier when they come again."

"Fine." She ignored him as they walked next to each other for a few steps.

"Why are you so rude? Did one of us do something wrong?" The troll sounded curious. He sounded uncommonly clear, too. No slurring of words, no inappropriate laughing or humming. No staggering or swaying.

"I just hate males in general." Her words were clipped. She didn't want to talk with him.

"Um, okay, good to know." There was a little pause while they headed on in the direction of the river separating the landscape into two almost identical parts. "But, why?"

Of course he had to ask. He was male after all, wouldn't understand her reasons, which was why she hated to tell him. But he had asked and though she knew it would be futile, she would answer. "Because they never understand that there are women who can take care of themselves. They always want to protect, and help and patronize us. It's annoying as hell. I don't need protection and I don't want it. Since males don't understand that, I try to avoid them altogether." She looked into the woods on her right, trying to see through the shadows there. "Stupid not to understand one simple thing." It wasn't much more than a murmur but the troll, the Shadow Priest, had to have extremely good hearing. He huffed.

"So you just label all males as stupid and say you hate them? Isn't that a little narrow-minded?"

"It is. But it saves me a lot of trouble."

The male stared at her but she didn't acknowledge him any further. He was fighting in this town war with her but she had neither to speak with him nor to interact with him. He was their support in this war so he was responsible for completely other things than she was.

The Legion Commander was used to be on her own, to walk alone and fight alone. She liked it because then no one stood in her way.

She left the troll standing in the woods as she entered the first clearing she passed, the wolves there immediately growling at her.


	3. Chapter 2

In the next big fight, now all five of them against all five of the enemy, the Legion Commander realized that the pink troll wasn't under the effect of drugs anymore. That was what had been different before. He didn't sway on his feet anymore and his gaze was sharp and clear. He looked concentrated and ready, not like during the other fights.

But she also recognized that his smile was gone, too. Yes, he had this too big mouth painted on his face but the smile _underneath_ , it was gone.

For a moment, Tresdin stood there and stared at him, a frown on her face. She was irritated by several things. The first definitely was the fact, that he had stopped taking drugs after she had told him how much she hated it. Had he done it for her? And if so, why the fuck would he do that?

The second thing she was irritated about, maybe even more so, was the fact that she kind of missed his smile. She shook her head and when the troll looked at her, showing absolutely no emotions on his ugly face. She bared her teeth and then stalked past him, pointedly ignoring him.

The fight started without any forewarning. The first enemy hero jumped right into their middle, followed by the others. And they went for the Legion Commander. Before she could do anything, she was immobilized by a stun so she could do absolutely nothing as they started to attack her. They were strong and they fought well together. It only took a few seconds before she could move again, but those few seconds had been enough to get her near death. It would only take two or three more hits and she would be defeated, Tresdin knew it. She had simply been unlucky this time, had been the focus of this attack. She could only hope that her allies were good enough to make the best out of this situation.

Since running was no option at this point, the Legion Commander raised her weapon, ready to block one blow, though it was futile, blocking one of five attacks. Then, exactly at the moment she thought it was all over, she could feel the energy of the troll, pink light flickering around her, as he cast his shallow grave on her, preventing her death for a few seconds. But those seconds would be enough. A smile curved around her mouth as she found the weakest enemy with uncanny accuracy. And then she went on the offensive.

She ignored her feelings about the troll, again, saving her and made the best of the situation. She was sure that she'd die, nonetheless, because the protection only lasted for so long and she'd still be near death afterwards.

She didn't die, though. The Legion Commander had her own ability to accelerate her regeneration rate and the troll had the ability to heal with this pink energy that he made flow through them.

It was still close but they made it. Standing there, blood dripping from her armour, her body bruised and battered, the emotions crashed into her, one after the other. First, there was relief that she hadn't died, that the troll had been able to save her. Then there was anger that she had needed saving and that she hadn't been strong enough to win this fight on her own. It was followed by irritation at the anger because there had been five enemy heroes focused on her and she'd never consider winning such an unbalanced fight alone.

All those things made her feel absolutely imbalanced and she wanted to snap at someone, to blame someone else for everything. But this time, maybe for the first time in this war, she knew that she first, wouldn't have stood a chance without the others in the fight, and second, it was okay because they had been five against her. And there was no shame in losing a fight at such odds.

And so she decided to ignore her allies, not even looking at them (and especially not at the troll), as she simply walked away. There was no danger in the woods since her enemies were all dead. And she needed to cool her head, to get this anger bubbling through her away, because it was so very unwarranted. At least this time.

It didn't matter to her if others liked her, that was why she happily insulted everyone who did something wrong. But she didn't accuse others unjustifiably.

A few moments later, she could hear footsteps behind her, following her. Tresdin grit her teeth to keep from whirling around and shouting at the creature. She knew that it was the troll, could almost feel him and his shaman energy.

"You shouldn't walk through the woods alone as injured as you are."

The Legion Commander stopped at those words. Her hands were gripping her weapon so tight, it hurt. "I don't need a babysitter." The words were ground out through clenched teeth.

The troll snorted and walked past her. "I'm not here to babysit you. I just want to place a ward." He waved one hand dismissively in her direction. "Was just saying." He vanished into the shadows underneath the trees and Tresdin closed her eyes to take a few deep breaths. He was right, though they had killed the enemy heroes, they would be back soon and it was better she got into town to regenerate fully. But now that he had said it, she wanted to behave in the opposite way, wanted to stay out here out of spite.

Something about the troll rubbed her the wrong way.

He appeared again out of the trees. He stopped, cocking his head to one side. "Are you okay?"

No, she wasn't. There was still the anger, warring with reason and her totally irrational wish to do the opposite of what the troll had said. When she remained silent, he came forward, until he stood in front of her. He looked her up and down, taking in her bloodied and injured appearance, her clenched teeth and her too tight grip on her weapon, her rigid posture and her frown.

He sighed. "Hell, you are the proudest warrior I've ever seen. But since you are also the best, maybe it is justified." He stopped, pursed his mouth, which looked strange with the paint on his face. The Legion Commander stared at him. She wasn't sure why the troll said those words and if he expected some answer, some reaction from her. But on some level, they pleased her immensely. Even though he had said she was proud, because it wasn't entirely bad to be so. He sighed again. "It is no shame to need help in a fight against so many opponents. If you'd rather I let you die, I can do so but I think with just this teeny-tiny bit help, you become invincible. And that is absolutely amazing!" He looked her in the eyes and now he smiled. "I know you'd never need help in a fight one on one, or even one on two. And I'll never come in your way, then." His smile morphed into a grin. "I'll just watch you fight, because it is the most awesome thing I've ever seen. And I have seen a lot." He leaned a little on his staff, only this time it wasn't because he was unsteady on his feet. He hadn't started again with taking the drugs and Tresdin… well, she appreciated it. As she appreciated his words and that he'd not interfere in a fight that she had no problem to win alone, again.

The leaves of the trees around them rustled in the silence that followed his words. The Legion Commander was still dripping with blood, the ground around her splattered with red drops. But the anger was gone now. The troll wrinkled his nose, then he straightened. He was taller now, the Commander realized. Without the drugs he didn't need his staff for balance, didn't lean on it all the time. His shoulders were back and he was now actually a tad taller than her.

Before he could turn and leave, she spoke. "Thank you." She didn't know for what she thanked him. For his words, for the ward, maybe for him having stopped with the drugs. Maybe for all of it. The troll simply nodded at her.


	4. Chapter 3

She had stayed in the woods for too long. The Legion Commander, with the improved vision of the ward the troll had placed, could see two enemy heroes coming her way. She could regenerate faster but her injuries were rather too many and too deep to heal them completely. She could try to run away. She looked at the enemies, who hadn't seen her yet and grimaced. Then she turned away and headed back in the direction of the town.

She covered about half the way to town when another enemy stepped into her way. It was the Alchemist, the only one here who could get dangerous for her. The ogre looked at her for a second and then he threw something at the Commander, which stunned her. _No_ , she thought, as he stepped forward, unsheathing his two swords. Lucky for her, she wasn't immobilized for long so she could activate her regeneration ability and answer his attack with her own.

He was fully healed, though, and he was _strong_. He kept going for her, one hit after the other, relentless, and the Commander hurt everywhere. He would win. Against her. A male.

The anger and rage was back with a vengeance, blocking everything else around her. She heard nothing, saw nothing except the enemy in front of her, the male who thought he could fight against her and _win_. That wouldn't happen. Never ever would the Legion Commander lose against a male in a fight one on one. Never!

She used every trick she knew, blocking, striking, counterattacking. Backing off a little, getting a better stance, carrying on. He was strong, so fucking strong, and she felt weak after the previous fights. But she wouldn't, couldn't lose. Her anger made her stronger, made her keep going, though her body was aching from her toes up to the tip of her hair. But she made it. She screamed.

Close, it had been so very close. One more hit and the fucking male would have killed her!

The Legion Commander was in a haze. Full of rage she kept hitting at the by now undiscernible body at her feet. The blood splattered, covering her completely. Again. She'd probably not get rid of it during this war.

"Commander." Someone was calling her but it sounded so far away. She screamed and kicked at the dead body.

Suddenly a hand touched her arm and a calm voice said her name. "Tresdin." She whirled around, ready to strike, when she saw who it was. The fucking troll just didn't know when to leave her the fuck alone and now his ugly face was right in front of her. She hissed at him and slapped his hand away. She hated to be touched.

He didn't look annoyed and he definitely didn't look afraid of her though she probably looked like a spawn from hell at the moment. She would have liked to say that it made her opinion about him rise but it only made her angrier. Since she couldn't hit him (it was physically impossible to hurt an ally in the town wars) she spat on the ground next to his feet then turned around and walked away.

It was only later, as her temper had cooled a bit, when she was sitting down in the safe zone of the town for a moment, that she realized he had pulled her out of her rage fit. By touching her and saying her name. As if it was the most normal thing in the world to get the Legion Commander out of her battle rage.

And she realized something else: he had been standing near them, almost since the Alchemist had stepped into her path. And he had done nothing! No healing, no death ward, nothing.

She was sure that he would have helped if he had thought it necessary. But he hadn't, so he must have been convinced that she'd win.

Maybe he had wanted her to die, sometimes males didn't help her because they wanted to see her suffer. Most times it didn't work out the way they had planned, Tresdin being too strong, too good to die easily. But if the ogre had survived, the troll would have died too, being no challenge in this town war for the stronger creature. So he had, kind of, put his life into her hands.

He had done what he had said he'd do. He had kept his word on that. As a matter of course, as if it was the most normal thing to do, watching an ally fight like that.

The Legion Commander was still in her thoughts when she headed out of town again. She wouldn't go through the woods because it seemed the enemy was trying to hunt her down there. She could go into the woods of the enemy, but she decided to go back onto the road, where the others were.

She hated that she had only males in her team, but they could achieve much together.

Her allies were all gathered as she neared. They ignored her approach, except for the troll. The Shadow Priest. He looked up and smiled at her shortly, the paint on his face making the smile look huge. The pink of his skin was bright against the darkness of the forest behind him. He was a strange creature.

The three males discussed something, Tresdin could make out a few words. It was about where they should go next, on whom they should focus during a fight. She didn't say anything to them as she walked past. They would either stop to argue and follow her, or would stay. She couldn't care less.

She did realize, though, that the Shadow Priest didn't participate in the discussion and that he pushed himself up from his staff, which he had leaned on, and came along with her immediately.

While she killed the enemy soldiers, the troll stayed behind her all the time. He simply watched and did nothing except scanning their surroundings a little. The Legion Commander relaxed slowly. The male had shown that he didn't meddle in her fights anymore as long as they were even. And so she wasn't on edge in his presence. Because, she trusted that he kept his word again and didn't interfere if it wasn't absolutely necessary. And she appreciated it.

Suddenly the Centaur blinked forward, right next to her, and with a hoof stomp he killed all enemy soldiers at once, taking the money and the experience the Commander had wanted. She froze for a moment as anger surfaced but the Centaur was racing forward again, completely ignoring that he had just stolen all those kills from her.

"I _can_ see why you hate all males." The Shadow Priest was by her side, looking at the back of the Centaur running up the road. "Show off," he muttered.

Their other two allies came out of the forest by their side then, rushing after the Centaur. Tresdin sneered. Hell, how she hated them all.

But since she wanted to win this war, she had to get along with them for now. At least halfway.

They went forward, all five of them. The troll stayed back so he wouldn't be caught in the middle of a battle. The Centaur always wanted to be at the front line, so whenever Tresdin came near him, he blinked further up the road or ran there.

That type of male was annoying but at least they were absolutely predictable. They thought themselves superior and always acted like that, showing their assumed superiority off at every opportunity.

Not that the other males were much better. The Nightstalker never let her out of his sight, staying near her and giving her orders! He ordered them all around but the Legion Commander couldn't stand it when stupid males told her what they thought she should do. Besides, it seemed as if he watched her to make sure she did what he had said. As if he didn't think she could do one simple thing alone. When she didn't do what he told her to, it surely wasn't because she wasn't capable.

And the annoying Fairy Dragon (Tresdin thought the name was wrong since he was much more fairy than dragon) flew circles around her, as if he wanted to protect her. He was a fairy, how the fuck did he think he could protect her?

By the time they reached second tower of the enemy (first tower having fallen a few minutes ago) she was seething with fury. The only one who didn't get on her nerves at the moment was the troll. Which was something she'd never have thought possible at the beginning of the war. But since he had stopping taking his strange drugs he had gotten way more pleasant. And if he weren't a male, she'd almost say she liked him now.

The Legion Commander was one second away from turning around and heading back, just to get away from those stupid idiots. But then she saw movement by the side of the rode. And her senses went into alert.

She felt the Shadow Priest slipping to the other side of the road behind her to be out of the way, so whoever might appear out of the shadows would have to get through her first. Tresdin narrowed her eyes, trying to see who was there, trying to find the source of the movement.

She caught it again, just the tiniest glimpse of something moving. And she jumped. She was one hundred percent confident in her actions. First, a lone enemy hero, or even two, were no danger for her. And for everything else, she had the troll at her back.

It was pure instinct now, her years of battle training kicking in with accuracy. The first enemy hero she saw was the ogre, but she ignored him. She wanted the weaker enemies first. She turned and came face to face with the startled snake creature. Before it could even realize what was happening, the Commander had it trapped in a duel and dead within seconds.

The ogre had by then started to attack her but he was alone now and with a smirk on her face, she turned around and gave him her full attention. She had killed him before, when she'd been heavily injured. Now she was almost fully healed and he'd stand absolutely no chance against her. He must have thought the same because he backed away. And then he ran. Of course she could have chased him but chasing was often what got a creature killed in this wars. So she instead kept going forward, parallel to the road.

Her allies were fighting, even the troll, who had left her alone as soon as he had seen there were only two enemy heroes against her. He really, totally and completely kept his word and not only because he had given it. Tresdin thought he was convinced that she was that good. She thought he did it because he _believed she could do what she said she could_.

She wasn't sure if she'd ever met such a male and she didn't know what she should think about him and his behaviour.

But first she had to save her stupid allies. Because they had, how could it be any different, overestimated themselves. For fucks sake, she could estimate her skills and skill level correctly, knew what she could do and what she couldn't do. Why did males always have to overestimate themselves? It was one of the reasons why the Legion Commander won as often as she did because she knew when she had to back off.

Now wasn't the time for that, though. Her allies might be stupid and not as skilled as they wanted themselves to be, but she was strong enough to balance it. And as she passed the Shadow Priest, he gave her a thumbs-up. So he was ready.

And for once, the Legion Commander trusted a male to have her back while not interfering in things he should stay out of.

Of course she won the fight but she wasn't really sad that except for the troll all her other allies had died in the process. "Hey, you could have saved at least one of them with your shallow grave."

The Shadow Priest came forward and hit at the enemy tower with her now that all enemies were dead. He shrugged. "Yeah, I could have. But I had to save it for our best fighter, which happens to be you. Especially with them acting as rash and dumb as they did, I had to make sure you were okay almost alone against four of them. If they had killed at least one or two of them, you wouldn't have needed it, but against four it is better to be safe than sorry."

Tresdin frowned. "You let them die so you could, just in case I might need it, give me the shallow grave?"

"Yeah, I think that's what I did."

The tower crumbled. "We should head back. Too risky to stay here." She turned around and the Shadow Priest followed. She shortened her steps a little so he could keep up. "They'll surely blame you for their deaths."

The troll laughed. "And you see me caring about that? They can blame me all they want, won't change anything in the coming fights. I don't give a damn about what others think about me or what they want me to do. Only because I'm the support in this war doesn't mean I have to do what anyone wants."

They passed some dragons in the forest and the Commander went to kill them. The troll used the time to place an observer ward before he waited the few hits it took for her to kill the beasts. Normally she would have sneered at anyone standing near her when she was killing some beasts, because they stole experience from her that way. But first, something between her and the Priest had changed throughout the last fights. And second, something about what he had just said didn't quite fit.

"You did what I told you to do." They ran through the creek separating the landscape between the two towns. "You stopped taking drugs and you stopped interfering with my fights."

When the troll didn't answer, she looked at him. And stopped running. Even through the paint on his face she could see that he had blushed, hard. His face and his neck almost _glowed_ in a deep purple with the force of the blush. He ran a few more steps before he stopped, too, but he kept facing in the direction they were headed so she couldn't see his features. She didn't need to, she was absolutely sure it was a blush and it covered his neck and parts of his shoulders, too, which she could see.

It looked so strange (not that the troll per se didn't look strange enough already with his pink skin) that she just had to laugh. "Oh fuck, you get bright purple when you blush!"

He frowned as he finally looked at her, the purple having darkened the colour of his face paint and crossed the arms in front of his chest. "You finished already?"

She snorted at that, between the laughing. "Man, this is damn funny. If you could see yourself right now, you'd laugh, too."

That made him smile. "You're probably right." He relaxed his stance and shook his head. "Come, let's get to the others."

"Oh no." Tresdin stopped him, still laughing a little. "First I want to know why the hell you blushed like that. I'm dying to know what the reason for that was."

At that, said blush, which had been about to dissipate, was back full force. That was interesting. He even started to fidget under her gaze. "Um, I was kind of impressed by your fighting." She waited for more because that hardly seemed enough to make him blush like that. People were often impressed but they never acted this way. When she didn't move, just kept staring, he sighed and rolled his eyes. "Okay, I was aroused by it and I wanted to make a good impression. You know, so I could hit on you."

Her mouth fell open. That was something she definitely hadn't expected. Then she frowned. She just wanted to say something, because she felt a flare of irritation at this admission, wondered if he still acted as he did (being friendly, letting her fight alone, telling her how skilled he thought she was) because he wanted to hit on her. Good thing for the only male in this town war she could tolerate to tell her his good behaviour was only because he wanted to have sex with her. As if this was any better than the treatment of the others. It made her suddenly question all he had said to her before. How he believed she was strong enough to fight on her own.

She narrowed her eyes but he continued before she could say something. "Wait. I know you get angry again, and it's only justified. But it was only the first thing. When I saw you again, not under the drugs anymore, it was different. I promise! In the fight, where the Nightstalker came to my defence, I _saw_ you for the first time. And though you behaved like an arse then, since I did save you and all, I realized that I have behaved like an arse, too. I didn't acknowledge your skill, ignored you and though you were not exactly polite in your requests, it wasn't fair of me to act against them. And after this fight I also realized that hitting on you would probably be the last thing I'd ever do in my life. So, now, before you get angry again, and I can see the anger already bubbling in your body, consider that this wanting to hit on you lasted about maybe five minutes. I promise!"

The Legion Commander wasn't sure what she should say or do. She stared at the troll. In his defence, he had never actually made any advances towards her. So he was probably telling the truth. His motivation to stop taking his drugs was certainly wrong but it had been good, at least in her opinion, in the end.

"I beheaded the last man who tried to flirt with me. I told him once to stop, he didn't, now he's dead." She hadn't meant to say that but it had kind of popped out of her mouth.

The Shadow Priest cringed. "Yeah, good to know. At least you gave him one chance to stop. Should've been warning enough." He seemed to be a little pale now, though. "Since I know you have such a short temper by now, I can only be glad that you can't kill your allies during a town war."

"You should be. I thought about killing you more than once." The words were said friendly, though, her anger gone again. The troll was alright. He could have lied to her about the blushing. He hadn't. It spoke for him. Tresdin valued honesty, even when it wasn't easy. And so she smiled now, generously forgiving him for finding her attractive enough to stop taking drugs, wanting to impress her and to hit on her. It could be worse. "I didn't think about it for some time now."

"Not even a minute ago?"

That was a good question. Her anger probably just hadn't had enough time to surface fully. But she didn't. Not for a second. Which was strange but he had probably simply been fast enough to explain himself. She shook her head. "Seems your behaviour has improved."

"I think it has." He looked at her strangely and Tresdin waited. She was sure he wanted to say something more. "You know," he began slowly. "I take drugs because they help me to look into the other spectrum. But I also do so because I normally don't care what others think about me. I don't care if they think I'm stupid, or slow, weak, unpredictable or something. But I feel like with you, I have to prove that not all males are like you think they are. And not because I want to get into your pants. I want to prove it to you, because I want to prove to myself that I can be different from them, too. That I am not like they are. And especially that I am not worse." He grinned at her. "I'm just glad that in a town war I feel no withdrawal symptoms. That would have probably put me off."

The troll was a strange male. He definitely was different than most males she had encountered in her life. If he was better than them, she didn't know yet. She got along with him, that much was true. But those few minutes in a town war hardly counted.

She just wanted to say something, when the enemy found them. They had been standing on their side of the creek but hadn't gone that far into the forest to talk. And now all five enemy heroes swarmed into the shadows of the trees. Maybe they had seen them or they had just come here on speculation. It didn't matter because she and the troll alone would have a really hard time to win a fight against all five of them.

And so Tresdin did the most reasonable thing: She turned to fight them so the Shadow Priest would be able to get away, maybe get the others and they could kill the by then injured enemies. "Get back!" Her shout was forceful enough to make one of the enemy heroes falter in his steps, but the damn troll behind her didn't run. She knew he was still there, the stupid fuck, not listening to her. And here she had thought, just a moment ago, his behaviour had improved!

With newfound anger coursing through her body, she attacked. She knew that she didn't have a chance, not against them all, even with the help of the troll. And especially not when the Priest was hit by a stun, now unable to help her at all. She died gloriously, but she died nevertheless. She couldn't turn around before the last hit got her but she didn't have to, to know that the troll had died.


	5. Chapter 4

The Legion Commander was resurrected in the safe zone. The Shadow Priest was there. He had waited for her and when he saw her, he grimaced. He opened his mouth to say something, but Tresdin didn't wait for whatever stupid things he wanted to tell her. She was in his face in a split second, crowding the troll and baring her teeth at him. He was only a tad taller, their eyes almost on one level.

She was furious. That he hadn't listened, that he had stayed though she had told him to leave. That he had been useless because he hadn't been far enough behind her. That he had fucking died. So, through clenched teeth, she ground out: "I told you to get _back_! Back, not stay. Is that too difficult for you to understand? Maybe you have become too stupid due to all those drugs you take to understand one single word."

She hated when males thought they knew better than her in a fight. Because they didn't. The Shadow Priest wouldn't have died if he had listened. For her it had been too late anyway. He hadn't been able to save her and by staying, by not doing as she had told him to, he had just joined her fate.

For the first time during this town war the troll really reacted to her insults and her anger. He frowned and though they stood already very close, he leaned even closer. His voice was calm and low, but firm and resolute. "I am not your dog. I do make my own decisions and I will never, I repeat it, I will _never_ leave your side in a fight you can't win alone." With that, he walked around her, leaving the safe zone.

No, he wouldn't leave like that. Since she was faster, it was easy for the Commander to catch up with the troll before he had even left the town. She grabbed his arm and pulled him around. "I am the best fighter you'll ever find. I'm always right in my decisions regarding a fight. Always. That's why I expect you to follow my command during one. Fucking _always_. Because I am fucking right and you are not!"

The troll sighed. He was completely unfazed by her anger as he faced her. "Okay. I could say many different things to that. But first, you are right. You are the best fighter and, at least as far as I can say and as far as it concerns me, you'll be always right with your decisions in a fight. You were right to tell me to get back."

Tresdin still had her hand around his arm and now the Priest put his free hand over hers. He didn't try to pull her hand away, just let his hand cover hers. That together with his words, and the Legion Commander suddenly felt off-balance. Her anger evaporated. And transformed into complete and utter confusion. Because, if he knew that her decision had been right, then "Why didn't you get back?"

He smiled. "Now, that has nothing to do with you being right or wrong. I knew they'd kill me if I stayed. But since you are my carry, I have to do everything in my might to protect you. Maybe I would've been able to keep you alive long enough for you to get away. Or for our allies to come. And, I didn't want to leave you. I didn't want you to have to face them alone." He shrugged. "And since I - no matter how much you don't like it - do have a will of my own, I can decide if I want to follow a command of yours or not."

Well, this didn't make Tresdin any less confused. She simply didn't understand his motivation behind it. She wanted to be angry at him because he had known that she was right and had still chosen to act against her command. But she couldn't. She hated when men did rash things, stupid things, things she had specifically told them not to do to impress her. Or to protect her when she didn't need and want it because they thought her to weak. Or to show her that she was only a frail woman.

This, this hadn't been because the Shadow Priest had wanted to impress her or because he thought her weak. She didn't understand why he hadn't left, but it was different. And if she had to be true to herself, someone without a will of his own, who only did what she told him to, always and without questioning it, wouldn't be someone she liked. She did appreciate strength, physical as well as mental. And the fact that the troll did stand up to her, no matter how angry she was, spoke of his strength.

"Damn it." The words were muttered more to herself than to him, but he grinned.

"It's a pain in the ass when others can think and act with their own free will, isn't it? I always wished I had the power to control all these idiots and make them do what I wanted. I would have made the Sacred Warrior put on a tutu and dance in pirouettes through the woods. Or the Troll Warlord eat a huge bowl of vegetables without one bit of meat."

The Legion Commander released his arm and smiled, as had surely been the troll's intent. "Good for all of us that you don't have that power." He ignored her comment.

"Or I would have made the Legion Commander be nice once in her lifetime."

"Oh, now be careful what you say. If you for once did what I told you to, I'd surely be nice to you. No one forces you to act against my wishes all the time."

The Shadow Priest laughed. "You are right, that's totally my fault. But since you can't hit me during this town war, I feel strangely safe and only a little compelled to make you mad all the time." As the tension between them had faded, they had begun to move forward together, out of the town and down the road.

"So you do it on purpose." The Legion Commander was a little surprised by that. She was sure no one had ever wanted to make her mad on purpose.

A shrug. "It is easy."

Completely out of the blue the Commander was hit by a pink wave of healing energy. She stopped. "What was that for?" Her tone was sharp.

Turning around, the Priest looked at her. She frowned, mildly irritated by the heal. He had the nerve to laugh, then. "See, too damn easy." Still laughing, he continued forward on the road.

Now Tresdin was annoyed, but more at herself. Because the troll had only wanted to prove his point and he had succeeded. She stared after him, her annoyance replaced by humour as she could still hear him laughing softly. He was right, it was easy to make her angry. It had to do with all these years she'd had to get along with tons of stupid males, who had all driven her crazy with their behaviour.

Not that the pink troll didn't make her crazy but something had changed between them. If she didn't know better, she'd say they were friends. As much as one could be friends during a town war. But it was nice to have at least one ally who wasn't a complete and utter jerk.

As she went on, their three allies came running down the road, back in the direction of the town. They were clearly on the run from something. The Shadow Priest stopped, and turned back, too. Only when he was behind her, did he wait for their allies. "You want to initiate?"

Tresdin nodded. "As soon as I see one of the weaker ones, I go in. Stay as far back as you can and beware the stuns! Don't go near enough to attack them, just so far that you can cast your spells."

"Gotcha." His voice was low and full of seriousness. The laughter from before was gone and though he had only a minute ago provoked and annoyed her she was one hundred percent sure that he would have her back now. Because he didn't go against her command out of spite and he did trust her judgement. If she'd had time to think about her thoughts then, she might have laughed about herself. She, the Legion Commander, trusting a male. Un-fucking-believable.

Completely ignoring her allies, she watched the forest, waiting for the first signs of the enemy. Someone said something but she didn't have time to deal with her stupid allies. The Shadow Priest answered, she could hear his voice as he firmly talked to the three males.

There was movement. Just a flicker and it was definitely the Alchemist, so not the one she'd attack first. "Troll?" She wanted to make sure he was there and ready and not distracted by the idiots.

"Saw it. Am ready." She could hear him taking a few steps back and away from the forest to the other side of the road. She could hear her three allies, too, but didn't care where they were or what they'd do. She just hoped they were intelligent enough to follow her attack. She didn't talk to them because she knew how useless it was to try and tell some overconfident and I-know-it-better type what she would do and what she expected of them. She'd have to get along with the help of the Shadow Priest.

From the moment she glimpsed the snake creature to her jumping and trapping it in a duel took maybe two seconds. And the fight was on.

A stun hit the Legion Commander and more than one hit was aimed at her. She didn't care. If that was all they could bring on, she'd never be in danger. But it seemed at least one of her allies had joined the fight because not all five enemy heroes attacked her. She almost grinned. That would have been their only chance, to all go for her and kill her together. Or maybe to take out the Shadow Priest first. But if only one or two attacked her, she'd kill them with ease.

The snake creature was down in mere seconds, even with her stunned for a short time. As she turned to the next enemy, activating her regeneration, she frowned a little, because she'd neither felt the healing wave nor the shallow grave from the troll. It made her a tad uneasy but she had to concentrate on the fight in front of her, didn't have time to check on her support.

Injured, but not that heavily, she stood over her third kill, blood dripping from her weapon. She wiped over her face with the back of her arm because it was dripping into her eyes, too, making her vision blurry and red. It didn't help much, since her clothes were soaked, but the dripping stopped.

Then, only then, did she give in to the urge to check on the troll. At first, she didn't see him, but a wave of pink energy was visible through the trees and she followed it. The Priest and the Nightstalker were still fighting and it didn't look that good for the latter.

So the Commander jumped in, hitting the enemy hero, who had clearly not expected her at all. He'd probably thought he could kill the Nightstalker and maybe even the troll afterwards. But now he was heavily outnumbered and Tresdin could see the moment he realized that he'd die. He even tried to run but it was way too late for that.

The healing wave, which was directed at the Nightstalker, hit her, too, and she wrinkled her nose.

"Oh come on!" the Shadow Priest rolled his eyes. "I healed _him_ , not you! I know that you don't need my help, why do you think I went with him instead of staying with you?"

The Nightstalker snarled at her before he headed back into town to regenerate. He was fast and vanished in the shadows immediately. The Legion Commander smiled at the troll's overacted outrage. "I was wondering where you had gone to."

"Since you didn't need my help I thought it better to help someone else instead of standing around and watching you annihilating them."

"It's fine." Of course it was. She hadn't needed him. And she had only worried a teeny tiny bit about him. "You want to accompany me on my killing tour through the woods?" The words were out before she could stop them. She didn't even know why she had said them. It was stupid to go through the woods together, because that way she'd get less experience from killing the creatures. And since they had just killed at least four enemy heroes, there was no danger in being there.

The Shadow Priest looked just as surprised by the question as the Commander felt. Even though she had been the one to ask it. "Um, I'm not sure…" he trailed off and Tresdin nodded briskly and turned away, heading deeper into the forest. She wasn't sure what she should think or feel. The words had popped out of her mouth without thought. They were stupid but she kind of didn't regret them. Which left her with the fact that he hadn't wanted to accompany her. Was she glad he hadn't come, because of the stupidity it would have posed, or was she disappointed?

She entered the first clearing with some birds that were as big as the Commander. Normally killing something calmed her but those creatures didn't take long enough to take down for the effect to come. She looked at the three bloody bodies at her feet and scowled. She kicked one of them, hard enough to flip it over. Seemed as if she was disappointed after all. She bared her teeth, getting angry at herself.

A movement caught her eye and she whirled around, ready for a more challenging fight.

The Shadow Priest was leaning on his staff lazily, watching her with a small smile on his face. He didn't comment on neither her anger for no reason nor her aggressiveness. "Want me to hit on the beasts, too, or just linger around in your vicinity?"

The Legion Commander straightened, her scowl still in place. But despite his annoying tone and stance, she was happy he had joined her. "Feel free to hit them, but you are way too slow. I'll have them killed before your first attack has found its mark."

He raised his brows. "Full of yourself, there, aren't you?"

"You want to bet?" Tresdin walked past him and he fell into step beside her. He shook his head, still smiling. On the next little clearing they passed they encountered two mud golems. The troll stayed back, leaning on his staff again as he watched her.

It was strange to have someone around, Tresdin thought as she attacked the creatures. The first died immediately, and, with death, split into two smaller golems. She ignored them as she killed the second big one, which did the same. Just as she was about to go for the four small ones, a wave of healing hit her, killing all four golems at once.

The Commander's mouth fell open as she, her weapon still raised, stared at the puddles of mud at her feet. She whirled around and found the troll grinning at her. The face she was making had to be so funny, his grin morphed into a full out laugh. "Oh wow," he gasped, "didn't expect that?"

Anger flared, he had to see it, but instead of quelling his joy, the stupid git now bubbled over with laughter. He held his stomach as he used his staff to keep standing.

And suddenly she had to laugh, too. Because, it really was funny. Not that he had stolen the kills, he hadn't done it to gain them for himself. He had done it to irritate her. And damn if it hadn't worked. And probably to show her that he was indeed fast enough to snatch a kill from her. He might be no warrior but he had other means to deal damage. As she had just seen. She hadn't even thought about it until now, though she had known that his ability healed his allies _while_ dealing damage to his enemies.

She should probably show just a little bit more respect towards him.

From that moment on, they stayed together wherever they went during this war. They roamed the woods together, they headed back into town together, they went to the shop to get some items together. The Legion Commander even accompanied the Shadow Priest when he wanted to place an observer ward for better vision. In the fights, he stayed far enough back not to get into the focus of the enemies and the Legion Commander knew that no matter what happened, she had a support at her back.

He respected her strength and her judgement of a situation. And in return, she respected his ability to watch her back, to be there should she need it. It was something that rarely happened, even with a female support.

Tresdin had never had so much fun during a town war. Though she had had the pleasure to fight with the Crystal Maiden once and the beautiful mage had flirted with her endlessly.

Even the troll's teasing was something she got used too. She was relaxed.

At one fight, when her other allies were acting like dumb male idiots again, she didn't even get angry. She just rolled her eyes and when the Shadow Priest rolled his eyes, too and smiled at her, she smiled back. And jumped right into the middle of the fight, saving two of her allies in the process.

That was the last real fight. The rest was more like going for a stroll.

They stood around the destroyed heart of the enemy town. The three annoying males vanished almost instantly, while the Shadow Priest stepped next to her, looking at the crumbled pile in front of them. "That was a good town war. After you learned how to control your anger, you were actually tolerable as an ally."

The Legion Commander narrowed her eyes and looked at the pink troll by her side. Then she laughed and slung her arm around his shoulder. "You know, you still are a pain in the ass. But I do think I learned to cope with it."

His grin was wide, the paint on his face making it look even wider, as if his whole face only consisted of mouth and teeth. "Yeah, you did. I think it's only a little sad that I can't make you angry anymore so easily."

Leaning a little closer, she hugged him hard against her side. "You're playing with fire little troll." Then she released him, now facing him fully. "It was nice to fight with you by my side."

The Shadow Priest nodded and held a hand out. Tresdin curled her hand around his wrist, tight, not a handshake but similar. "Dazzle."

He nodded again. "Tresdin."

Calling someone by his real name during a town war was rare. Because normally they didn't get that close in such a short time. She honoured him by doing so, as he honoured her. It was a sign of their mutual respect that they had developed. Not that it had been easy but the Commander was glad they had succeeded in the end.

They let go of each other and with a last nod from both, they vanished from the town.

Just like that, it was over. When a town war was over, everyone was teleported back to the place they had started the war from. There existed several places one could do that from all over the world.

The one Tresdin was standing on now, was a platform at the edge of a desert. It was a flat rock, about seven feet wide and ten feet long. It was higher than the surrounding landscape, but not by much. It was enough to make it the highest point for miles, though, because the desert, as well as the plane it morphed into, was absolutely flat. A small town, a few miles away, could be seen through the with heat shimmering air.

The jump from the platform made grains of sand spray around the Legion Commander's feet. They glittered in the sun before they settled on the ground again.

With a sigh, and a frown at the sun, she began her way to the town. After maybe five of six steps, she was already sweating. Why again had she decided to come here? She knew of at least two other platforms she could start from that weren't in a desert.

In the town, she'd find a flight master immediately and get away from here.

Her stomach growled, reminding Tresdin that town wars were exhausting, at least afterwards. Since their bodies didn't feel things like hunger or thirst or tiredness during the wars, all those things were worse after they were back in the real world. As if the body had to make up for the lost time.

So, first eat and drink, then fly. And hope she didn't fall asleep on the griffon and fall off.

The sun was bright and the sand around her was almost white, which made her eyes hurt in less than five minutes. The grass that followed the sand wasn't much better, because it was almost white, too. In addition to the hurting eyes and the sweating came the fatigue. The armour the Legion Commander wore was heavy, as was her weapon. At least walking was easier now with earth and grass under her feet instead of sand.

In the end, she decided to stay in the town for one night. She got to the inn, ordered food, which she ate in her room, and fell asleep seconds after she had finished eating.

The next day was better and she started early. The griffon didn't take long to get her home, her house not too far away from the desert. It was a lot cooler here, though, because it was on a mountain. And the grass wasn't white anymore. It wasn't really colourful, but at least it was definitely green.

As her feet hit the ground, she sighed, glad to be home again.

For about three weeks the Legion Commander trained in the training yard in front of her house. Those were the only things she ever did, fighting or training to get better. The town wars were a fun activity she indulged in from time to time, but since she fought there, too, it probably fell into one of the two categories.


	6. Chapter 5

One day Tresdin trained with an orc, who had come to learn from her. The female was a lot bigger than Tresdin and a lot heavier, too. It had been absolutely no problem to defeat her, despite the height difference. She had only done that once, right at the beginning, to show the orc that she was indeed better than her and had the right to tell her what mistakes she made and where she had to improve.

There were often creatures, who came to learn from her and the Legion Commander was kind of neutral so the creatures were from all fractions existing.

She had early on found out that she had to defeat them once in a fight before they could begin with the training. Because though they came to her to learn, they still didn't truly believe that she was better. She always had to show them. At first, it had made her angry because why did they need proof like that? Every single creature? Couldn't they simply believe that she was the best fighter in the world? It seemed they couldn't, and so she had adjusted and made everyone who came to her taste dirt within the first minute they entered the training yard.

At least afterwards they were polite and quite eager to learn from her. And followed her instructions.

They had just had a little sparring to test the moves the Commander had shown the orc female. The orc was sitting on the ground, rubbing her side where Tresdin had hit her. Otherwise she didn't show how much it must hurt. And it had to, the Legion Commander seldom pulled her hits. When someone wanted to train with her, they had to be tough enough to endure whatever she confronted them with.

Tresdin straightened and took a deep breath. She was restless today and lacking in concentration. She was just lucky that the orc was that bad at fighting, otherwise she might have been able to land a hit or two. Fuck. Looking down at the female, who was getting up again already, she decided that she had to take a break. Not because of the orc, training with her was good enough. No real challenge but she was tough and strong. She would stand up again and again, all day long. Not once complaining and not once faltering or showing signs of tiredness. It was impressive.

"Okay," she said. "That wasn't so bad." It was only partly a lie. She showed the female where she had made mistakes and what she had to improve. "I'll leave for a few days." It wouldn't take long, she'd just go into a town war and relax a little. It was normal, because she had to be one hundred percent concentrated all the time when she was fighting. Even if she was only training someone.

But during a town war, it wasn't that important. Of course she wanted to win, always, but at least she couldn't die, there. And her life didn't depend on her winning the war. It was easy. Relaxing. Most times training, especially the routines she went through alone, would calm her enough but sometimes it wasn't what she needed. Today was one of those times.

And so she would go to a town war now. The orc female could practice during the time she was gone, which would only be a few days, tops.

An hour later, she was on her way. She flew to a different starting platform for the town war this time. The one by the desert had been way too hot. When she returned she didn't want to sweat like a pig in addition to the hunger, thirst and tiredness she'd feel.

This platform was farther away but that didn't really matter at all.

The town war started promising, two females in her team and one beast. Those were, even when they were male, often more amiable or at least indifferent towards her. The Legion Commander went into the forest, like in every town war.

It was like always, but at the third group of beasts she had killed, she stared at the dead bodies and sighed. It was boring to do this alone. No one to talk to, no one who teased her, no one who was by her side and whom she could trust.

Tresdin pushed those feelings away. A town war wasn't supposed to be exciting. They were supposed to make her relax. She had come here to do some mindless killing without fear of dying. She continued and then went to the road to kill the first enemy hero. She jumped and trapped the enemy hero in a duel. Her allies helped her but she didn't care much. She didn't even get angry when one of them healed her. Back in the forest, she stopped and frowned. And then she realized what the problem was: she missed the Shadow Priest.

She'd probably never in her life missed anyone. It was such a new feeling that she wasn't so sure what to do with it. She was completely absent minded while she continued to go through the woods. She didn't need to be concentrated for that. So she thought about the pink troll. Was it appropriate to visit him? To ask him to accompany her on another town war? They had become friends but Tresdin didn't know what was common and what wasn't with creatures one met during a town war. Because sometimes they were from different fractions and one couldn't just walk up to the other and talk or do stuff together.

She didn't know what would happen when she visited him. Would their connection from the town war make them allies in the real world, too? Would he even want that? Did she want that? A troll shaman and a human warrior. She didn't care about the strangeness of it, but maybe he would? In the end she decided to give it a try. If he didn't want to accompany her on another town war, this time choosing freely to go together as a team, he could as well say 'no'.

The Legion Commander knocked on the door of the Shadow Priest's house. She was a tad nervous because she didn't really know what to expect. She had never made friends or anything similar during a town war and this was new for her.

It took awfully long before she could hear movement behind the door. She had just considered leaving, when she hear the shuffling of feet. A moment later, the door opened.

The Shadow Priest grinned at her, his face painted the same way it had been during the war. "Tresdin!" His speech was slurred, she could hear it even in only this one word. He was leaning on his staff heavily and his eyes were glazed over. He had clearly taken drugs again. She didn't know what she had expected, but it hadn't been that. She was shocked.

The troll moved forward and spread his arms, as if he wanted to hug her. Tresdin stumbled backwards, suddenly disgusted by him. "Don't touch me." It was a hiss, her teeth clenched as anger began to rise. And to think she had missed this pathetic creature.

"Hey, what's wrong? I thought we were friends! Friends hug each other." He took another step forward, his grin too wide, the paint making him look insane.

Now Tresdin snarled at him. "Yeah, we _were_. Didn't know you had drifted back into being pathetic and stupid." She was furious. Her throat burned, as did her eyes. She was so unbelievably _disappointed_. And to think she had believed he was different from all those other males. But he was just as weak and dense like all of them.

She whirled around, not wanting to see the fucking idiot one second longer. But though he was high as hell, he was fast enough to grab her arm. That was too much.

The Legion Commander growled and swung her free arm, her hand clenched into a fist. Lucky for the troll it was the hand without the weapon. Her fist connected soundly with his jaw, making him release her arm and stagger backwards. "Don't touch me!" She couldn't stand it. Couldn't stand him like that. Couldn't stand to be touched by a creature that degraded itself like that by taking drugs.

The Shadow Priest shook as head as if to clear it. His grin was gone, as it should be. Because here, out of the town war, she could hurt him, could probably kill the fucking troll if she wanted to. Again lucky for him, she didn't kill that lightly.

"Tresdin, wait."

She snarled again, didn't want to wait. She didn't want to hear what he had to say as excuse. She only wanted to leave.

"Tresdin, please. I'm sorry." The words were still slurred, but he looked serious now and a bruise was already forming on his jaw, visible even through the paint. He swayed on his feet, steadied himself with his staff. "I'm sorry." He repeated.

Maybe it was his words, maybe it was how sincere he sounded. But the Commander's anger waned. She just hadn't expected to find the Shadow Priest like that. It was like he was a different creature when he was high, a creature she definitely didn't like. As she looked at him now, she didn't know what to do. She had come here with the expectation to find a friend, to spend time with him, to get company for her next town war. What she had found instead, was this disgusting _male_. Tresdin was swamped by so many feelings but the most prominent ones were sadness and disappointment.

Her vision got blurry and she clenched her teeth as well as her fists, blinking rapidly. She wouldn't cry, not because of some worthless fuck. Not now, not ever. She was stronger than that and she didn't need the troll as friend.

They stood like that, in front of each other, the Legion Commander trying desperately to get her composure back and the Shadow Priest trying even harder to get his mind and his body under control. "I did not think you would come." He spoke slowly, every syllable pronounced. "I only stopped for you. You were not here. So there was no reason to resist." He frowned, clearly thinking about what to say. It took him a while to form the next words, thinking probably not an easy feat in his state. "Stay here until tomorrow. I will be sober by then."

Tresdin didn't think this would be a good idea. At the moment she hated the troll and she didn't care if he'd be sober the next day. If he'd ever be sober.

"Please, Tresdin. Give me a chance."

She didn't want to, but some part of her didn't want to lose a friend without having tried. If she left now, it would be over. And she'd hate him for the rest of her life. So what was a day? Her hatred could probably not get any stronger. And maybe friendship was worth a second chance. So she nodded. And her whole body relaxed, simply because it wasn't over, yet. Maybe tomorrow wouldn't make it any better, but for the moment it was okay. There was a spark of hope.

The Shadow Priest blew out a breathed "Thank you". He wanted to lead the Commander into his house, but stopped suddenly. "Um, I think it would be better if you did not come in. I have something like a guest room in a separate building." He stepped out of his house and shut the door firmly behind himself. He held the door latch a tad too long, and when he walked around the house he swayed with every step. He used his staff for balance and his back was bowed, which made him smaller than Tresdin.

All in all, he gave the appearance of a very old man, who was nothing like the funny troll she had learned to like during the town war. She just hoped that she'd get her friend back instead of this pathetic male in front of her.

The guest house was small but cosy. "You can stay here as long as you want." The Shadow Priest was grinning this too wide grin again, which made him look crazy. The Legion Commander frowned and just stared at him. How someone could change so much in such a short time was beyond her. When she only continued to stare at him, the troll shuffled his feet, his smile waning. "Well, um, I will leave you alone, then."

It was late afternoon, in no way late enough to go to bed. Tresdin examined the guest house shortly. There was a bed, not too small but not wide, either, a shelf with a few books, an empty weapons rack and a table with one chair. The fur of some beast covered more than half of the floor and a lamp hung at the ceiling. Nothing to occupy herself with, since she hated reading and wouldn't touch one of the books if she could avoid it.

But the Legion Commander still had this anger, frustration and disappointment bubbling through her body, so she decided it would probably be a good idea to do some training. The exercise would help her to relax and maybe stabbing an imaginary pink troll in the process would make her feel better, too.

In front of the house was a big smooth square, perfect for training. But it was in front of the house, so it was no option this day. She didn't want to see the stoned troll. So instead, the Commander hiked up one of the hills behind the guest house and then down the other side. It wasn't as good a place to do some fighting but it was good enough. She didn't need a flat surface to train, it was simply easier especially when she wanted to get all her steps perfectly.

As soon as she had started with her training routine, her head shut all those stupid thoughts about the troll off.

Only when it was too dark for her to see anything at all did Tresdin stop. She was covered in sweat and dust but she felt calmer now, ready to go to sleep and face the troll in the morning.

Her anger was gone and her disappointment was merely a dull ache around her heart.

She found something like a trough to wash before she went to bed. As she lay there, she thought about the Shadow Priest. The training had put some mental distance between herself and the situation and she felt she could more objectively look at the matter now.

Of course he had been right when he had said he hadn't thought they would see each other again. And even if, he had a right to decide on his own what he wanted to do with his life. He was a shaman after all and there were probably rituals in which he had to take drugs to make them successful. She was in no way entitled to tell him what he should do and what he shouldn't. In her opinion, it was absolutely wrong to take drugs, no matter which ones. It was worse with the ones the Priest took, because they made him behave so very differently. It was very disconcerting. But it was nevertheless his life and his decision.

Despite it all, she hoped that he would stop taking drugs. She liked him, but not when he was this swaying, grinning idiot. Her heart heavy, because she knew that she had no right to demand anything from the troll at all, she fell asleep.


	7. Chapter 6

Mornings of the Legion Commander always started the same way: She got up, splashed some cold water onto her face, neck and arms, and then she started with her move-and-stretch routine. Only after she had finished this routine, did she don her armour and take her weapon. It was important that she loosen her muscles first and do some moves that were impossible with her armour on. That way she kept her flexibility and movability. Staid faster and more mobile than other warriors.

Before she hadn't finished this warmup program, the Legion Commander was not really awake. Others drank some tea or whatever to wake up faster, Tresdin did sports. She could feel her mind starting to work at about halfway through the workout. She was useless before that.

When she was done, she stood straight and stretched her whole body one last time. With a sigh and a smile, she turned towards the guest house to get clothed completely. And stopped.

The Shadow Priest stood in the doorway of his house, leaning against the frame while he watched her. He looked like hell, the paint on his face smeared at several places, his eyes dull and tired. His hair wasn't braided and stuck up from his head in all directions. "Hey Tresdin. I see you are already awake." He looked her up and down. "Probably for hours." He pushed away from the frame and walked towards her.

The Legion Commander was confused. She hadn't felt the troll watching her and normally, no matter how tired she was, she always knew when someone was around. It was her warrior instinct. Had saved her life more than once.

"You look awful." The words were out of her mouth while her mind still pondered why she hadn't felt his presence. She grimaced. But the troll actually laughed.

"Yeah, I'm not so much a morning person. Especially when I was high."

And with only one sentence, all the anger from the day before was back. The Shadow Priest saw the change in her features and cringed. "You want to have breakfast first or talk?"

As much as the Legion Commander would have liked to get over with it, she was hungry and maybe it was fair to give the troll a little more time to wake up. "Breakfast."

The breath he blew out spoke volumes about his relief. Then he motioned in one direction, away from his house. "I'll go and get something. You can wait here, it won't take long."

That was fine for her. Tresdin used the time to get dressed, except for her helmet. She had just put the last piece of her armour on, when the troll knocked on the door of the guest house.

He had put a small table in front of his house with two pillows to sit on. There were different kinds of food and drink, some of them unknown to her. She wasn't picky with her food and she tried everything. Some things were to her taste, some weren't.

While they were eating, the Commander pushed her thoughts about the troll away. He didn't start a conversation and so she just concentrated on eating, her anger simmering.

Finally full, she leaned away from the table and looked at the priest. He had finished eating some time ago but had remained silent. He still looked as ruffled as when he had gotten up but his eyes were more alert now. She frowned, didn't know how to start this conversation. She would have liked to make a demand about him never taking drugs again. She was still mad enough at him to do it. But it felt wrong. Especially since she didn't know if they were friends outside of the town war.

It seemed the troll knew what to say. Or he was better with communication than Tresdin, which wasn't that hard. She wasn't very good with words. She wasn't sensible or stuff like that and she was brutally honest.

"I'm sorry. I can't say how much I regret that you found me like that yesterday." He blew out his breath forcefully. "I've never gotten along with someone the way we did in the town war. And when I was back, I was sure it was only the war and all. Nothing real. It didn't feel real here. And I fell neatly back into my normal lifestyle. Which includes being high, well, kind of always. It isn't even because I can't stop, I can purge myself so I don't feel withdrawal symptoms very much. It's simply because I'm used to it and because I don't care about the effect the drugs have. It's fun to take them and so I don't think much further." He raked a hand through his tousled hair. "I'm not sure why you came here but whatever the reason is, I want to tell you: I _can_ stay away from my drugs. I don't even need them as a shaman, I'm just able to get my hands on them more easily than others. Or make them myself. Please don't be mad at me."

During his speech, her anger had vanished. As had the disappointment she had felt at seeing him like that yesterday. Instead, there was hope now. He had been as unsure about this friendship as she had been, but it seemed he didn't want it to end, either. "I am not mad. I…" She didn't know what she was, what she felt at the moment, but: "… okay."

The relief the troll felt at this one word was palpable. His smile returned full force and though his paint was smeared from the night, it wasn't as creepy as the day before. And it was infectious. They grinned at each other before Dazzle leaped up and begun to put the breakfast and everything away. While he did that, he asked: "So, why did you come here?"

The Legion Commander wanted to help him put things back in his house, but he stopped her again from entering. "That wouldn't be a very good idea. I'd suggest you stay outside."

Since he was a shaman she was sure he was right. If he had been high every day his house was probably full of stuff she didn't want to see or know about. When he came back out, he had his staff in his hands but was still dishevelled and unkempt. He smiled at her.

"I thought maybe you would like to accompany me on a town war. I've been to one and it was awful and I thought about how much more fun it'd be with you."

"Yeah, I was hoping you'd say that. I'd love to! Give me a few more moments to make myself presentable?"

Meanwhile the Legion Commander got her helmet.

The troll didn't need long to put his hair in order and to put fresh paint on his face. He had changed his clothes, too, and looked motivated and ready to go. He had a backpack in one hand that he slung over his shoulder. "The next starting platform isn't far." He pointed in one direction. "A few hills over there."

They walked next to each other, the Commander shortening her steps, put only a little. Though she wore her complete armour, she was still a tad faster than the troll. Or maybe he just didn't want to go faster. Even when he wasn't high he was more the calm type. Tresdin suspected that nothing could faze or unsettle him. It was fascinating for her, because she got angry so easily.

"Dazzle." The Legion Commander tested how it was to call him by his name. She had thought the whole night only as the troll or the Shadow Priest about him. That way she had kept him emotionally away from her, had kept more distance between them. She hesitated for a moment, unsure if she should ask the questions that were in her head. But they had established that they were friends, so why shouldn't she? If he didn't want to answer any of them, he could say so. Tresdin was curious and wanted to find out more about the pink troll shaman. He was so absolute and utterly different from her, in every aspect, and she wanted to understand him.

"Did you choose your name or did your parents actually name you 'dazzle'?"

"No, they didn't. But I changed it when I was very young, still. I liked it and so I forced everyone to call me so."

"What was your name before?"

"I don't remember." Strange, to forget ones real name. But if everyone had only called him 'dazzle' for a long time, maybe it was normal.

"Why do you always paint your face?" It was a foreign thing for her, and it seemed like it wasn't worth the effort, to paint ones face every morning. She knew she wouldn't have time for that.

"It helps to keep ghosts and spirits away. As a shaman, they often seek me out and the paint keeps them away. To some extent. But it also helps to keep stupid creatures with stupid questions away. Many of them are repelled by the fact that I'm obviously a shaman, too. Some are even afraid to attack me because of it. So, there are lots of pros."

"You are sought out by ghosts and spirits?" As a warrior, she had seldom contact to such unworldly creatures. They were often intangible and she couldn't hurt them with her swords. And there was nothing they could want from her. So she almost never met one of them.

"Yeah. As a shaman, I can go into the spirit realm, am connected to it."

"Creepy."

Dazzle laughed. "You're probably right. But I always found it fascinating to no end."

They kept talking like that, both learning things about the other while they headed to the platform from which they could get to a town war. It was easy, the talking. Tresdin wasn't very good at conversations and such social things but with the troll it was fine. He was never offended when she said something she shouldn't have said or was too honest. He wasn't scared off by her sometimes gruff answers or her tone. He was always calm and smiled a lot.

The Legion Commander felt relaxed in a way she didn't often feel. Carefree. It was nice.

The platform was on one of the hills. Tresdin would have never found it alone because the hills all looked the same here and the platform wasn't visible from the bottom of the hill. Dazzle took his backpack and hid it between some rocks. "What is inside the backpack?"

"Food and water. I hate how hungry I am after the town wars. Makes me mad."

"Oh." Tresdin felt stupid suddenly. She had never considered taking food with her and hiding it so she'd have something to eat after the war. Of course she didn't have a platform she usually started from so she'd have had to look for a hiding place at every new place. But it wouldn't have been impossible.

"Don't worry," the troll winked at her, "I've packed enough for both of us."

And the Legion Commander blushed. Fucking shit. Luckily the Shadow Priest had turned away again and didn't see it. That would have been embarrassing. She wasn't even sure if she had blushed because the troll had outthought her and packed food for her or because he had winked at her. Both things were a little unsettling.

The town war was perfect. Of course the Legion Commander and the Shadow Priest didn't go on a road together. But the troll was on the road near the woods where Tresdin killed the beasts as always in the beginning of the war. She went to the road early to get the enemy heroes killed. And it was so good to know that she had a support on whom she could rely on. He didn't interfere except it was absolutely necessary and then he did it right. The war was over in no time and the Commander grinned at the Priest as they stood next to the smoking remains of the heart of the enemy town.

"You are the best support, ever." She slapped him on the shoulder and he staggered a little to the side, though he didn't stop grinning back at her.

"Thanks. When one knows how to fulfil all your innumerable demands and don't make you angry all the time, you are the best carry. Well, the angry part isn't true, your being angry doesn't influence your being the best."

Tresdin laughed.

And then, when they ported back to the platform they had started from, she found out how wonderful it was to have something to eat and drink ready after a town war. They sat down next to the platform and devoured everything Dazzle had in his backpack. "That was the best idea, ever."

"Of course it was, it was my idea."

Leaning against a stone at her back, the Commander rolled her eyes at that statement. "Arrogant fucker."

"Oh, you do want me to pack something for you next time, too, don't you? I could take only something for me and you'd have to watch me eat it." He was smiling at her, looking extremely pleased after the won war and the food now.

"And now blackmailing? I'm stronger and faster, I could just take it from you."

"Who's arrogant now?"

"Me not. Because I simply state facts." She rested her head back against the stone, and closed her eyes. Now that she'd had something to eat, tiredness came in a rush. She heard Dazzle rustling across from her, then his movements as he drew nearer. She didn't open her eyes, though, felt completely unthreatened by his presence, no matter how near he was.

"Tresdin, I have a Hearth Stone. It'll bring us very close to my house. We'll be there in about ten minutes."

She yawned, and nodded. A second passed, then he took her hand. She could hear his smile in his voice. "You should get up before I start the port."

Still with her eyes closed, she frowned. "Must I?"

"Oh come, lazy cow," he tugged on her hand, was obviously standing over her, "Get you stupid arse up from the ground. You don't want a shop full of trolls to see you lounging on the ground like that."

"You called me lazy cow?" The Commander used his hand to get up, though she almost made him topple over with it. She was heavy with all her armour on.

"Seems like it helped." Before she could reply, they ported. They appeared in a shop, but contrary to what he'd said, it was empty except for the shopkeeper.

The Shadow Priest nodded at the other troll politely before he pulled the Legion Commander (he was still holding her hand) out of the shop. She didn't protest, wanted just to get some sleep and was almost grateful that he had taken the lead and pulled her to the guest house and then into it. He even helped her to get her armour off after he saw how clumsily she fumbled with all the fastenings.

The first time he reached for her, she swatted his hand away. "I don't need your help." But he only raised his brows, challenging her with his gaze and when she couldn't get the next fastening to open because she was too tired to move her fingers properly, she sighed, resigned, and just let him do the work. She hit the bed before the last part of her armour was put on the chair. And she was asleep before Dazzle had even left the room. She was too tired to think about what that meant, because she never slept when someone else was around, especially not without her armour on. Too dangerous. And her warrior instincts wouldn't leave her in such a situation.


	8. Chapter 7

On the next morning, the Legion Commander was up as always, going through her routine. She was at maybe half, when two troll females appeared on one of the hills. Tresdin knew immediately when she wasn't alone anymore, could feel the two creatures looking at her. She continued as if nothing was amiss but kept them in her field of vision all the time.

The came down and knocked on the door of the Shadow Priest's house. Only when no answer came, did they address the Commander. "Excuse us, do you know if Dazzle is at home?"

Tresdin stopped and looked at the two. They were both smaller than her, but not by much. One of them was clearly a warrior, though she didn't wear armour like Tresdin did to cover her body. Hers was lighter and showed more of her defined muscles and her blue skin. She had a double axe in her hand that was huge and probably heavy, too. The second female was thinner but maybe she was the more dangerous one. She had several small knives tucked into her belt and she moved like she was on the hunt. Stealthily and silently. She didn't wear any shoes and her clothes were all brown leather over pale green skin. She was beautiful with a flare of don't-mess-with-me surrounding her.

The warrior troll held herself in an arrogant way that told the Commander that she would be absolutely no threat to her. She hadn't, not even while watching Tresdin move through her morning routine, seen how powerful she was and probably thought that she was the superior one here. Oh how funny it would be to show her how wrong she was.

The rogue or assassin troll wasn't that stupid. Her gaze was guarded, her hands close enough to her weapons to be able to throw one in the blink of an eye. She was the cunning one.

The Legion Commander smiled at the green one shortly, then she leaned on her weapon in a deliberately casual pose and turned her attention towards the warrior. "Yeah, he is. Might be still asleep, though. Come back again later."

And there it was. The warrior female hated commands. No surprise as she snarled at Tresdin. "We'll wait." And the Commander had to suppress a smile as she thought about Dazzle and how he liked to rile her up. It was kind of funny to see someone getting angry with no reason. And even more so when the angry one couldn't do any harm. So she continued. "Then wait over there, I'm training here." The next command.

The troll spat on the ground, her posture becoming more aggressive. "I wait where I want to wait. You can go and train somewhere else."

"Then stay, but be quite." It was hard not to laugh as the female leaned closer until their noses where almost touching, fury burning in her eyes. "Or what? You too stupid to train while someone talks around you? You get distracted by noises, you fucking human?"

That was the moment when the other troll decided that it was enough. Maybe she was afraid that Tresdin would start a fight (which she'd win even without her armour on). "Cara, it's a human. Don't get your hands dirty with the likes of her. Not worth it. And Dazzle wouldn't like to have blood on his porch, you know that."

 _The likes of her_. Racist. But when Tresdin looked at the green troll, definitely more annoyed by the words of this cool and collected female than by everything the rash warrior had said and done, the rogue shrugged slightly and smiled, definitely apologetically. Tresdin relaxed again. It had probably only been said to get the warrior away from her, and it did work. She spat on the ground again and mumbled something, probably not very nice, under her breath. But she turned away and left the Commander standing in the middle of the place.

"Sorry for that." The words from the green troll were only a whisper. "Hope you don't intend to challenge us for that." Her eyes roamed over Tresdin's body slowly. "We wouldn't have any hope to win against you, so please accept my apology, in the name of Cara, too."

The Legion Commander nodded. She didn't really care about the troll warrior and what she had said and done. And she had deliberately made her angry, so it was only fair that she didn't charge her for the insults she had delivered in answer.

"Um, are you staying here for longer?" The female lowered her gaze and a tiny blush appeared on her cheeks. "Maybe we could have a drink or something together?" Belatedly she realized that she hadn't even introduced herself. Her blush intensified as she held her hand out. "Oh, I'm Zea by the way."

Well, Tresdin thought, she was good-looking. And she liked women who knew what they wanted and were direct about it. With her lack in communicational skills, she didn't get subtle hints. She took the outstretched hand. "Tresdin. Nice to meet you." She hesitated for a moment about the invitation for a drink. For several reasons. But it was nothing that really bothered her. "Yeah, I'd love to have a drink with you. I don't know how long I'll be staying, but a few days minimum."

Zea smiled, her small troll tusks looking cute on her.

Just then an extremely sleepy looking and dishevelled Dazzle opened his door. "What is wrong with you all? Do you know how early it is? At least be quite so I can sleep."

The warrior troll completely ignored what he had said and rushed forward, embracing Dazzle in a tight hug. He hung in her arms, his body limp as he blinked several times. "Um, hi Cara."

"Dazzle!" The female held his upper arms as she took a step back and looked at him with a bright smile on her face. She had dropped her weapon before she had hugged him. Tresdin watched the encounter, not sure if she should safe Dazzle from the crazy female or if she should find it all funny and keep watching.

"I missed you! Where have you been? I came here every day and you didn't even leave a message where you had gone." The troll female hugged the Shadow Priest again and held him tight for long moments. "I was worried about you."

When she released him again, Dazzle smiled at her. "I'm sorry you were worried. You want to come in? I'll make us some tea." He looked over to Tresdin and the other troll. "Morning Tresdin, hey Zea."

Before the Commander could answer, the warrior troll had pulled Dazzle inside of his house and shut the door behind them. Tresdin frowned at the closed door. Because she wasn't allowed to go in but some strange troll female was.

"It seems they don't need us. Want to go for that drink now?" Zea wasn't looking at Tresdin and blushed again. Fuck, she was cute. The Commander didn't feel like going with the female now. She was oddly annoyed about Dazzle being so nice to this stupid troll and even inviting her into his house to make her tea. When she didn't answer right away and kept frowning at the door, Zea got nervous. "Um, okay. Don't bother, I'll just leave."

Tresdin snarled a little, not at the female, but at herself. Because really? She'd let such a gorgeous woman leave, alone, though she had invited her? She wasn't good with subtlety but even she knew that an invitation for a drink like that meant the chance to get laid, maybe not right away but since she would stay a few days it was almost a guarantee. If she didn't behave like a stupid retard now. "Sorry, Zea. I'd love to come with you." She debated if she should put her armour on but what was the use in that? She'd just take her weapon.

The troll female still looked unsure so Tresdin pulled her mind away from the Shadow Priest and his visitor and concentrated fully on the cute female in front of her. She looked into her eyes and smiled. It was her cocky smile which she used on women she dated, because they all seemed to like it. And as always, it worked. Zea smiled back, visibly relaxing, and a teeny-tiny blush coloured her cheeks.

This would be almost too easy, the Legion Commander thought.

In the end, Tresdin didn't stay long with Zea. She was absentminded and her body wasn't really into it, too. Though the troll made it quite clear that she wanted to have sex, preferably right away. But the Commander excused herself and went back to the house of the Shadow Priest. She would have liked to knock and see if the warrior female was gone, but she didn't. Instead, she resumed her training. She felt uneasy about the two being together and her eyes drifted to the house and the closed door way too often. Tresdin blamed her strange behaviour towards Dazzle and the troll female being in the house alone on her dislike of the female. Nothing strange in worrying about a friend being alone with some freaky and easy to anger warrior.

Only a few minutes later, Dazzle opened the door. "Hey Tresdin, where have you been?"

The Legion Commander stopped and looked the troll over. He had made his hair and face paint and was awake by now. The troll warrior wasn't there. It made her feel much better, relieved really, because if he'd had time to get himself in order like that he couldn't have spent much time with the warrior. "I was with Zea. She invited me for a drink."

He frowned for a second but then he, like, forced his features into neutrality. It was weird, because he so seldom showed any kind of displeasure. "And then you are already back?"

With a shrug, she replied. "Getting a drink doesn't take that long."

"Yeah, well, Zea is known for not only taking someone for a _drink_ with her."

Did she have to defend herself now because she _didn't_ have sex with the troll female? Slightly annoyed, Tresdin crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I didn't want to fuck some troll female who's a complete stranger to me." It wasn't really the truth because normally she didn't care about things like that, as long as the female was good-looking in her eyes and pleasant enough to interact with.

"Because she was a stranger or because she was a troll?" No question if it was because she was a woman. Seemed it was well known what her preferences were.

"Dazzle." The Legion Commander glared at him. "You think I just made a racist comment?"

"Sorry." The troll relaxed a little, his stance losing its rigidness. "I don't know, I was kind of… I don't like the idea of you going with Zea." He grimaced, as if he didn't like how the words sounded or that he had spoken them at all. "I…" He blew out a breath. Then the tone of his voice changed. "Want some breakfast?"

"Um, yeah. Sure."

The Shadow Priest vanished into his house while Tresdin puzzled over this strange conversation. He had said he hadn't liked her going with Zea. It had been obvious in his frown and in his tone. Which left the question: why? Maybe he didn't like Zea or he didn't like that she had been gone without saying something to him. But he had gone inside with the troll warrior, had he expected for her to knock and tell him when she left?

When they sat at the table, Tresdin asked him. "Why didn't you like me going with Zea?"

The Shadow Priest grimaced and fidgeted as he avoided looking at the Commander. "Can't we… um, drop the subject please?"

Now, of course, she was curious. Why did such a simple question so clearly make him uncomfortable? She raised her bows and stared at him, waiting patiently for his answer.

He sighed and accepted his fate. "I was jealous."

"Oh." Well, that didn't make it much clearer. "Why? Because I spent time with her instead of you?"

Now the Priest blushed. And it was a little like a déjà vu. Like the one time in the town war when he had blushed. When he had told her that he had stopped taking drugs because he had intended to hit on her. She suddenly knew why he had been jealous, a second before he said it. "Because I thought she had sex with you."

Tresdin was speechless. And for more than one reason. She tried to wrap her mind around the fact that the Shadow Priest was jealous about her having sex with someone else while she simultaneously tried to ignore the tiny voice in her head that told her she had been jealous because she had thought the same about him and the warrior troll. They were friends, there was no place for jealousy about something like that. Not to mention the fact that she didn't like men and so her jealousy would condemn him to a life without sex. The same the other way round, though he would probably not mind sex with her. He had said he found her attractive. Wow, even in her mind this all sounded like babbling.

"Tresdin?" Dazzle's sounded unsure at her continuing silence. "I'm sorry, please don't be mad. I… it wasn't intentional. If you hadn't asked I would've never said anything. Tresdin? Talk to me."

"I'm not mad." She wasn't. She didn't know what she felt, but it wasn't anger or something like that. She stared at the table for long moments but the thoughts in her mind whirled around, not getting any clearer. So she stood up and grabbed her weapon.

"Tresdin?" The troll asked again, clearly not knowing what to think of her behaviour.

"It's okay. I just need to think a bit. Going through some exercises helps me to clear my mind." And because he looked a little sad and confused, she reassured him again. "I'm not mad."

"Okay. You mind if I stay?"

"Of course not." Why would she? With most males she hated when they watched her, because they never saw the skill behind her movements. They ever only saw her as some weak female, maybe tried to look for weaknesses in her fighting style. Or they got off on watching her. And she hated it. Dazzle was different, though. It wasn't that he didn't see her as a female, because he did. But she didn't mind that he found her attractive, he didn't lust and drool like some of these disgusting males. He saw her strength, knew what she could do. Trusted her to be able to do what she claimed she could. He saw her skill and he had never tried to diminish it.

The Legion Commander began with the first steps. Some of her exercises were a fixed sequence of movements and she choose those when she wanted to calm down. Or when she wanted to think, like now. These movements were so much embedded into her being that she didn't have to think about them anymore. Her body moved completely on its own.

And so, her mind began to wander. She thought about Dazzle, how she had seen him the first time. How he had changed for her, at first for the wrong reasons, but continued to be her friend after they had put the wrong reasons aside. How they had spent the time during the town war together, fighting together and talking with each other. Then, how she had felt lonely in her next town war without him, a little restless and unsatisfied. How she had went here and found him and how he had apologized. How he had, again, changed for her, because they were friends. How he would have tried to hide his jealousy because he had thought it would make her mad.

And she realized that Dazzle had made sacrifices for her, while she had done nothing for him. He had quit to take drugs (and only because in her opinion it was good for him didn't make it any less a sacrifice he had taken for her), had adapted to her style of fighting and being. And to her 'innumerable demands' (she didn't think her demands were innumerable but they surely were many and ambitious, too). He had supressed his finding her attractive because he knew that she didn't like it.

Then she thought about him being jealous. But more important, how _she_ had been jealous. She stopped in her movements and sighed. Because she couldn't figure this out. She wouldn't admit it, but she was a little afraid of what lay underneath it all. Underneath her missing him and being jealous about some stupid troll warrior female. She refused to follow this train of thought.

What she knew now, though, was that she had been a lousy friend so far. Especially when Dazzle was afraid to tell her something because he thought it would make her mad. Not acceptable. Of course she had to make up for all those times she had insulted him and shouted at him. But she fully intended to make it work, to make their friendship better. To make it equal. She would focus on that now.

Sitting down at the table where Dazzle was still drinking some kind of tea, Tresdin resumed eating. She hadn't had much before she had stopped and she was still hungry. "So," she began in-between bites. "What do you want to do?" She chose to ignore their previous talk completely. There was nothing to say to it anymore and so she wouldn't go back to the topic of jealousy.

"Do?" The Shadow Priest was confused by this question, so she clarified it.

"Yeah, do you want to go for another town war? Or maybe visit some places , travel the world? Stay here or come with me to my place? What do you want to do?"

Before he answered, he leaned back, his hands places on the ground behind him. He thought about it for several moments while Tresdin kept eating. She watched him as she waited patiently. She didn't really care what they'd do next, she only knew that she wanted to stay with Dazzle, do something together with him, and that she had to at least get a message to the orc woman at her house some time.

"Normally I don't plan to do something. I just go with the flow. But if I get to choose, I think I'd like to see your place. I heard it's high in the mountains and I'm curious."


	9. Chapter 8

They packed their stuff (which went extremely fast with Tresdin's things but took hours with Dazzle's) and then they made their way to the next village to find a flight master. The troll had a huge backpack on his shoulders and it was full to the bursting. "What the fuck have you put in your backpack?" Tresdin almost never took anything with her except her armour and weapon. Everything else could be purchased on the way and she hated to think about what she might need or not. So she just took nothing.

"Oh, well, this and that. Food, water, clothes, blankets, dried herbs and animal parts I don't get everywhere, stuff one might need." He eyed her up and down. "Well, stuff _I_ might need. Seems you get along fine with your warrior things only. But," a smile tugged at his lips now, "if you want to have something to eat, too, when we pause later, I'd be willing to share."

How amazing it felt to have someone else think about what she might need and actually bring it. Her smile was bright and Dazzle laughed. "Easy to make you happy, I see."

"Or course. I'm happy every time a male crosses my path and doesn't get on my nerves."

"Oh, so you actually have to be never happy when I'm near you."

"You think you get on my nerves?" Her tone was dead dry now.

"Oh no." He laughed. "I know that I do. But I also know that it doesn't make you crazy anymore. I heard how you annoyed Cara without batting an eye. Just like I would've done with you." He bumped his shoulder against hers and grimaced because he hit her armour and Tresdin didn't budge one bit. He rubbed the spot. "That _hurts_."

Tresdin laughed. Damn, he was right. He didn't make her crazy anymore and she liked to spend time with him. How much their relationship had changed. But he was wrong with one thing. "I am happy when I'm near you."

"I know." His smile then was beautiful. The sun made his skin shine bright pink and the paint on his face stood in stark contrast to the rich colour. It was fascinating. Tresdin reached out on a whim and brushed her thumb from the black around his eye through the white on his cheek and the painted teeth, down to his chin. She left a smeared path and had paint on her thumb now. She looked at the grey on the armoured gauntlet and frowned. She had wanted to feel his skin, to feel the paint on her flesh. Strange.

They had stopped walking and Dazzle had his brows raised. "You okay."

Tresdin laughed again and shook her hand before she wiped the paint onto a piece of fabric. They resumed walking. "Yes. You bring things out in me I didn't know exist. But it's okay. Do you mind me seeing you without the paint one day?" She was curious about how he'd look without it.

"Of course not. But I have to warn you:" his grin was lopsided now. "without it I'm not as pretty as you might expect."

"I don't need you to be pretty. Pretty males are just as annoying as ugly ones. Maybe even more so since they are usually peacocky in addition to all their other flaws." She looked at the troll. "Your paint is smeared."

He rolled his eyes at that. "Why, you had to wipe through it. It's only natural that it's smeared now."

"Um, sorry?" She didn't know if she had to apologize for that because she didn't know how important the paint really was and if it had to be faultless.

"Don't worry, I'm not that sensitive. You can touch me whenever you want. I don't mind."

For a split second Tresdin had the sudden urge to put her hands on the sides of his face and kiss him while she smeared the paint all over his skin. Mix the white and the black and then spread it from his face down to his neck, chest and back and see how it would look on his pink skin smeared like that. See what he'd say to that. Her fingers itched but as fast as this strange thought had come, it was gone again. It did leave the Legion Commander reeling for a few moments, though. Because, what the fuck? She was a lesbian, had always been. She despised males but she had just thought about _kissing_ one?

She glanced at the male walking by her side from the corners of her eyes. He was still smiling, hadn't realized that Tresdin had been hit by a wave of feelings that had completely disturbed her. He looked into the distance, where the town was already visible. The path her thumb had taken was clearly visible on his face and it was as clear that it had been made by touching the troll. She was strangely pleased by it because the only one around who could have touched him was her.

The rest of the journey to her house was uneventful. No weird feelings or anything worth mentioning. Tresdin and Dazzle talked a lot (actually the troll did, while she listened). He seemed to like talking and told her about his tribe, about the life as a troll and as a shaman. The Commander had absolutely no clue about any of these topics since she normally wasn't interested in the lives and doings of other creatures. She didn't care about others and to beat them in a fight she didn't need to know how they lived. She found herself listening, though, and she found it absolutely fascinating. Everything he was and did was so different from her that she almost couldn't believe some of the things he told her.

Especially since her life was summarized with a few sentences, all of them including fighting.

They landed near her house, in the middle of the mountains.

"I'm impressed." Dazzle turned on the spot, looking in all directions, taking his surroundings in. "You have found a nice place to live."

It had taken the Legion Commander several years to find this place. She had been unsatisfied with all the places she had stayed until she had walked through these mountains one day and had stood at exactly the same spot the troll was standing now. And she had immediately decided that she wanted to live here. It had taken her about two more years to set everything up the way she wanted. Since then she had never wanted to live anywhere else.

The house wasn't on the peak of a mountain but about half way up on an almost flat platform. On two sides the mountain rose higher and on the other two sides it fell down. On those two sides one had an impressive view over the landscape deep down. The place where the house stood was a tad lower than the surrounding platform, so it wasn't visible from the foot of the mountain or the plane down there. It was a little hidden like that, which was also a positive against the wind.

As they neared the house, Tresdin saw that the orc female she had left was still around. She was currently at the water trough in front of the house. She had definitely been training, her body glistening with sweat, her weapon leaning on the wall beside her. She glanced over her shoulder when she heard them and grabbed her weapon. As soon as she recognized the Legion Commander, her muscles relaxed and she finished drinking.

"Legion Commander." Her voice was way too deep for a human female but she was an orc after all. "Good to see you again. You have been gone quite some time. But I have been training endlessly."

"Perfect. I'll just show the Shadow Priest around and then I'll have time for you to show me your improvement."

The orc bared her teeth (maybe as a smile?) and then headed into the training area.

"You teach fighting?" Dazzle followed Tresdin to the house.

"Yes. Whenever someone comes here and is willing, I teach. And why wouldn't I? I can share my knowledge with others and from time to time I get an opponent, who's almost my equal." She opened the door and walked inside. When she had built the house she had made sure she had enough rooms should she have guests or pupils. Her room was the last one at the end of the hallway and the door was always closed. All other doors were open, even the one the orc female currently occupied. Tresdin led Dazzle to the room next to hers. It was actually the biggest one (Tresdin didn't need much space and had built hers just big enough for her needs). But with the backpack the Priest had brought he'd surely appreciate a big room.

While he set his things up, Tresdin went outside again. She was curious what the orc had achieved in her absence and she didn't want to intrude into Dazzle's privacy too much by watching him unpack. The Commander left her armour on as she went to the training area, because a hit of the huge female, even if it only grazed her, could be really dangerous. Of course she'd still be better than the orc but even the best fighter could get hit by a beginner and she might be many things, including very full of herself, but she wasn't stupid.

They began to fight and while they did so, Tresdin pointed things out to the orc that she should change or where she had to be more careful. After maybe an hour, she stopped to show her a few moves. "Look at my hands and feet, how I hold my weapon. Now turn like that..." Tresdin stopped mid-sentence as her sword pointed at the Shadow Priest, who stood at the side of the training area. She hadn't even realized that he had approached. Hadn't sensed him watching them.

"Hey Tresdin, you mind if I make something to eat? I'm starving. How long will you continue with the training?"

"Um..." she lowered her weapon, not feeling very well as long as it pointed at the troll, even though he was completely undisturbed by it. "Eat? Yeah, good. Um..." she never thought about how long she wanted to train. She began when she woke in the morning and stopped when she was too hungry or too tired to keep going. Sometimes she stopped when her pupil was too tired or hungry to keep going. She never planned it. But she could maybe, probably, change that, especially when Dazzle made food for her. "Just, call when you are finished. I can make a break whenever I want."

"Perfect." A bright Dazzle smile for her. Tresdin looked at the troll walking back into the house. "Well, as I said..." She started to move again as the orc female watched her. _Her_ eyes she could feel on her body the whole time, she always knew where the female was, what she was doing and how she moved. It seemed even her body had accepted the Shadow Priest as a friend and didn't alert her about his presence. It wasn't a problem, she just had to get used to it.

They kept fighting until the orc female did the same mistake she been doing the whole day again. Tresdin had told her more than once what she did wrong and what she should do instead and the fucking female kept doing it wrong. Tresdin wasn't a patient person and she hated when they didn't do what she told them. When she saw it, she put even more power behind her hit and smashed the orc female to the ground with so much force she thought the earth beneath her feet shook a little. "I told you to fucking _not_ do that!" The female looked at her with dazed eyes. "I fucking told you!" She stepped closer and put the tip of her weapon to her neck. The orc flinched but didn't move otherwise. She probably hurt as fuck. As she should. "If you can't follow my orders then you can as well go home." She wanted to kick the stupid orc but that would've been a little too much. She hissed at her and then turned away so she wouldn't be tempted to kick, anyway.

"Hey Tresdin." Dazzle called from the side of the training area. "You wanna make a break?"

And like that, her anger was gone. She blew out a long breath and then she helped the orc female up and onto her feet. She held her arm until she was sure the female wouldn't fall down again before she walked over to the troll. "You going to invite your pupil?"

The Legion Commander grimaced. But he was right. So she waved at the female to come, too. It wasn't that the troll had prepared too little food for the three of them, it was more that she didn't want to connect with the orc female. Especially not when she had just made her angry. She shouldn't have worried. Dazzle made all the talking while they ate and if, he would have a connection to the orc by the end of the day, not Tresdin. But it was fine for her.

Up to the moment, when the orc female leaned too close to the troll for her liking and almost touched him.

That was unacceptable. "Up." The Commander dropped her food and grabbed her weapon. The orc female followed immediately, doing as Tresdin had commanded. Good for her. Dazzle looked at her with raised brows and a little smirk on his lips. The annoying troll knew what bothered her. Maybe he knew it better than she did, because the Commander still told herself it was because the orc female was her pupil and she didn't befriend her pupils.

When the sun began to set, Tresdin stopped. She declared them finished for the day and the orc female went to clean herself and her stuff. The Legion Commander threw her armour and weapon on the floor of her room. Then she stuck her head into Dazzle's room. The troll was sitting at the table, which was covered with strange things, and he was plucking tiny leaves or something from a plant. "Dazzle, I'm finished for today. Want to watch the sunset with me?"

The sunset was something truly breath-taking up here. Tresdin often watched it because there was no place in the world from which it was more beautiful than here. She had even created a place where she could sit and relax from the day.

"Of course." The troll stopped whatever he had been doing and joined her.

They sat side by side on the soft grass, their backs leaning against an artfully carved, lying tree trunk. The trunk was several feet long and made a curve so that the place was halfway protected from the sides. It was comfortable and gave the impression of tranquillity and peace. Something the Legion Commander thoroughly enjoyed after a day of fighting.

Dazzle sighed, his whole body relaxing as he watched the sun setting. They were close, their shoulders, hips and thighs touching. The troll leaned a little bit against her and Tresdin automatically raiser her arm and slung it around his shoulders. He snuggled closer and they stayed like that until it was dark. It felt nice, was probably the best sunset watching she had ever done.

"You smell good." Dazzle had rested his head against Tresdin's shoulder and she had her nose almost buried in his hair. The thought had popped up in her head and, as always, she said whatever was on her mind.

"Thanks. It's probably some mix of herbs." Then: "You smell like sweat and steel." She could hear the smile in his voice as he said that.

"You don't have to sit so close. Maybe you want to go over there?" She pointed to the far end of the tree trunk.

A soft chuckle as he leaned heavy against her. "I think I don't mind much. It isn't too bad."

"Well, thank you."

They stayed like that for a few more minutes, Tresdin reluctant to let go of the troll by her side and get up. But it got cold now rapidly and she felt Dazzle shiver. He took the decision from her as he straightened and then stood up. He held his hand out for her to pull her up, too, and without her armour all on she didn't have to be careful to make him topple over with her weight.

He shivered again. "It's definitely cold up here."

It was, especially at night. Considering where the troll lived, it was no wonder he was freezing now. It would take time to get used to it, or maybe just warmer clothes. "Come, let's go inside."

It wasn't much warmer, but enough to make Dazzle stop to shiver. She made him sit down on her bed while she took her armour and weapon and began her daily cleaning ritual. She had neglected it the last days she had been at the trolls and it was more than time. She was sitting on the floor, everything strewn around her. He had offered to help, but she had refused. She had to do this alone, had to touch every tiny piece of armour and make sure everything was perfect, nothing broken or nicked.

It was something they did for the coming days, first sitting on the mountain to watch the sunset, then chatting in her room while Tresdin cleaned her things. Sometimes the troll brought something he could do meanwhile but often enough he simply watched her and told her stories.

This first night, however, when the troll had gone to his room, the Legion Commander sat down to write a letter. She didn't do that often, there being seldom need to do so. But today she needed something and so she wrote. She had a birdlike creature that took her letters and returned after it had delivered them. It was fast and one hundred percent reliable. Her private mail delivery service.


	10. Chapter 9

The Legion Commander woke early and before her mind was really there, her body had already taken her outside for her morning routine. Only a few minutes passed before the orc female joined her. Tresdin never told her pupils when to get up or how to start their days, but they almost always copied her and her routine. Most of them stuck to it even after they had left. It had to be a good way to start a day, something that suited warriors. Of course, for some it was harder, as it was for the orc female. She needed more time than the Commander to wake up, her movements sluggish and slow until then. But she forced herself out of bed early and her body liked the stretching and moving. The female had realized that she was more flexible and faster when she did the stretching early in the morning. And so she now forced herself through it every day.

Tresdin saw that it was hard for the orc and never corrected her before she was sure that the female was fully awake and functional. The first steps didn't have to be precise, not necessarily. They would grow more precise after the second, third or maybe forth repetition. And that was okay. She respected the willpower it took for the female to get up despite her obvious sleepiness every morning.

The Shadow Priest never woke before she had finished her wake up routine. He had his own routine in the mornings, consisting of washing, combing and painting his face. After he had finished with that, he had formed a habit of making breakfast. It was more like a mid-morning snack for her, but she adapted within a few days and ate less in the morning, already looking forward to Dazzle's breakfast.

On this first morning, maybe an hour after they had had breakfast, a messenger arrived. Tresdin knew him, had instructed him how to behave when he got something for her. He should only disturb her when it was important, otherwise he'd put whatever he had next to her door. As he did now. She felt him leaving again but ignored him as she was currently focused on the attacks of the orc female.

When it was time for lunch, Dazzle came over and waited on the side of the training area. He always did that. Though she had never told him how much she hated to be disturbed during her training, he had known it. Maybe he knew enough warriors and they were similar enough in this aspect. He just stood there, watching until she had finished what she had been doing. Sometimes he sat down and sometimes he walked to where he could look over the landscape at the foot of the mountain. But his presence always indicated that he wanted something. Most times it was when a meal was ready.

The troll had completely taken over all tasks that had to do with food. Making it, preparing it, putting it away, even ordering it, after Tresdin had told him he should do so. Since he was making it, it was only sensible. He knew what he needed and so he should get it.

The Legion Commander had never before eaten so well and in such a regular rhythm. She loved it.

So this first morning, Dazzle also told her that she had received a package as they were eating lunch. Tresdin knew what it was. She took the package and gave it to the troll. "It's for you."

"For me? How can you know that? You didn't even open it." But he had already begun to remove the brown paper.

"Because I only get things I order and I ordered something for you." She resumed eating but kept an eye on the troll. He had the package open and took one object after the other out of it. There were all clothes to keep him warm. First a simple purple shirt with short sleeves. Then another one, in a darker colour, with long sleeves and made of thicker cloth. Another one, even thicker, made of wool. It was greyish, because it was almost impossible to make this kind of wool take colour. Something like a cloak, more pink than purple, and a cuddly blanket. The last was in a deep blue, simply because it was Tresdin's favourite shade and she had wanted to get the troll one thing in her colour. The only thing she hadn't ordered had been warm socks, because she really had no idea how big troll feet were. She'd just place a second order later, see if Dazzle needed anything else.

The orc female watched. She always ate with them but only seldom took part in any conversation with them after this first time when Tresdin had ordered her up after she had leaned too close to the troll. She did talk with Dazzle but it was more reserved and she kept plenty distance between them now.

The Shadow Priest stroked over the fluffy surface of the blanket. His smile when he looked at Tresdin was wide, appearing even wider with the paint on his face. Then he leaned over, and hugged her. It was awkward, with them both sitting, all the stuff squished between them and her armour making her too wide and almost unhuggable. Dazzle didn't care about it as he held her close. "Thank you!"

"Um, you're welcome." Tresdin was a little stunned by his joy about those few things. It wasn't anything special.

"They are even in my colours!" He held the cloak up again, grinning. "The other trolls will be so jealous of me when I get back and they see what I own now." He jumped up and put all the things on, one after the other, until he stood there with the cloak covering the grey woollen shirt. Only the blanket still lay on the ground. "Hm, might be a little warm for all of these." He grabbed the blanket and headed into the house. After a few minutes he returned, now only wearing the short sleeved shirt. His paint was smeared from putting the shirts on and off.

Tresdin's fingers itched as she wanted to wipe the smears away. Instead she smiled at the troll and his enthusiasm.

The orc female grabbed her weapon and left for the training area. The Legion Commander didn't follow her but she stayed until Dazzle had finished eating, too.

In the evening, when the sun began to set, the troll already waited for her. He had put the cloak on over the shirt to keep him warm. They sat side by side on the grass, the lying tree trunk as backrest. And though he couldn't be cold now, he slid close again, until their bodies were touching. As if it was the most normal thing in the world. And because it had been nice the day before to cuddle like that, she put her arms around his shoulders.

Dazzle smiled as he looked at the setting sun. And Tresdin knew that this was her favourite moment of the day. These sunsets with the troll shaman would probably be her favourite moments of all the coming days, too. She leaned closer, until her nose touched his hair, and took a deep breath. He smelled different today, more spicy, but underneath the scent of whatever herbs he had worked with, was his scent. And, she had to smile at that, it reminded her of the colour purple. He even smelled like his favourite colour, as if it was imbedded in his system.

They watched in silence, both relaxing from the day. And again it was the troll who got up first. As they walked back to the house, he asked: "I want to send potions I make from here. And have ingredients delivered to me that I can't find in these mountains. Can you tell me whom I can ask for that? Some merchant in the next town or something?"

And so the Commander wrote another letter this evening, ordering a personal flying courier for the troll. It was easier than going to the town every time or to have someone come up here to collect and bring stuff. His delight the next day, as well as his hug, made Tresdin feel strangely happy. For a moment she thought about giving him a present every day to make him smile like that and to have him hug her.

It was maybe the fourth or fifth day the Shadow Priest was here with her. Tresdin had no idea how long he had been staying with her. It felt so natural to have him around that she felt as if he had been with her forever.

On this day the troll was inside of the house the whole day. He had made something to eat, but it wasn't anything fancy. Only when it grew dark did she realize she hadn't seen him all day long. She went inside to put her armour away when she saw why. Her house was neat. And clean. The Commander never had time to do things like tidy up and she didn't care how her house looked.

Dazzle came out of his room. "Hey, I hope you don't mind me tidying up here. Easier for me to cook when nothing's lying around everywhere."

"Why would I mind?" She had to admit that it looked better now, it just wasn't worth the effort in her opinion. She didn't want to waste time for a clean house. "Thank you."

They headed out together, the troll smiling slightly. They sat down as always, Dazzle immediately scooting closer and Tresdin putting her arm around his shoulders. She sniffed his hair, had made a habit out of it by now. It was fascinating to smell all the different herbs he had worked with throughout the day but to always have the underlying scent of purple that belonged to him. Today, he smelled of dust and dirt, which tickled her nose until she had to sneeze.

"Damn, you should take a bath or something. You have half the dirt from my house stuck to your hair."

He laughed softly. "I don't think so, otherwise there wouldn't be the tiniest piece of it visible now. It would probably cover my whole body, too."

"It wasn't that dirty."

"Oh, it definitely was. I thought I'd never get it all away. Not in one day at least. I wanted to do all the rooms, too, but only got the kitchen and the living room. This is work for more than a week."

"I'm sorry, I don't have time for cleaning. But you don't have to do it, you know?"

He leaned more heavily against her. "I know. Otherwise I wouldn't do it."

Tresdin moved her hand up on his shoulder and brushed against his hair. She had found out that it was unbelievably soft, not like hair at all, and she loved to play with the strands, loved to let it glide over her skin.

The Shadow Priest was the first to get up before he held his hand out to pull her to her feet, too.

The next weeks passed like that. The Legion Commander trained all day long while the Shadow Priest did shaman things. The Commander wasn't so sure what he did in his room, other than he brewed strange potions sometimes or wrote long letters. He wandered through the mountains from time to time to gather herbs and he went to town, too. He prepared the meals and he kept the house clean. When he left for more than a few hours, he told her and left her something to eat. And he was always back in the evening to watch the sunset with her.

It was perfect and the Commander had never been happier and more relaxed in her whole life.

The orc female finished her training and Tresdin sent her home. She was still far away from being as good as the Commander but it felt as if she had reached her personal best. She would get better with more training and some actual fighting but she could do that on her own.

Dazzle and Tresdin were alone for some time but nothing in their routine changed.


	11. Chapter 10

One day while they ate 'breakfast', the Shadow Priest announced that he'd be gone for a few days. He wanted to visit home, get a few things from his house and collect some herbs that grew around there. The Legion Commander stopped eating and frowned at this news. She almost blurted out a "don't leave me", but bit her tongue. That would sound way too needy and she didn't _need_ Dazzle. She didn't need anyone. She just liked to have him around. So she nodded and forced herself to continue eating.

The troll looked at her for a few moments, as if he expected something else. Then he shrugged. He put everything away after they had finished eating and fetched his backpack.

"You'll come back in a few days?" Tresdin was proud that her voice was steady and she sounded cool and collected, the words being just a casual question. She didn't feel steady, though. Instead she was sad that she'd be alone, even if it was only a few days. And she was confused because his leaving made her sad. A little angry at herself perhaps because she'd grown so attached to the troll.

He nodded. Began to turn away from her and hesitated.

Then he bridged the distance between them with one long step and hugged her. Tresdin didn't feel much through her armour but she had taken her helmet off and Dazzle pressed his cheek against hers. His hair brushed against her nose and mouth, so soft, and she took a deep breath, her arms circling around his body as good as possible with the huge backpack on his back. The cloak she had given him was strapped to it and he was wearing the short sleeved shirt. He didn't smell like any herbs today, not even like the food he had made. It was only him and she took it all in.

When they separated, at least the anger in her was gone. It wasn't bad that she had grown attached to the troll. It was simply something new, something she had to get used to. And it was worth it.

On the day the Shadow Priest left, the Legion Commander stopped her training much sooner than normal. She didn't feel like going through her routines and so she finished and went in search for the food he had left for her. Her whole evening was like shit. She didn't go out after the sun began to set, didn't want to see it and be reminded of being alone. She didn't clean her armour because it reminded her of Dazzle and her loneliness, too, since he always sat with her when she did that. She was grumpy and bad-tempered and didn't know what to do with herself.

She went to bed early, but lay there and couldn't sleep. In her desperation and loneliness (how could someone feel so lonely after just a few hours and with the knowledge that it would only be for a few days?) she got up again. She left her room and stopped in front of the closed door of Dazzle's room. She had, not once, entered it since he had moved in. Not because he hadn't wanted her to, she had simply not thought about going inside. And he hadn't invited her in, so she had stayed outside.

But now she opened the door and stepped over the threshold. It was already too dark to see much but she could make out a table full of stuff, lots of shelves on the walls, all filled. One with books, one with herbs and other ingredients for his potions, one with things he needed to brew the potions, like pots and vials. One was almost empty. It was all very neat, though, well sorted and tidy. Except for the table.

The bed was made and suddenly, while looking at it, the Commander felt very tired. The room smelled like Dazzle, with all the herbs and such, and it _felt_ like him. If it wasn't so dark, she'd probably see lots of pink and purple in here. All in all, it comforted her and made her feel not so very alone anymore.

She lay down in his bed and curled together underneath the blanket, his scent all around her now. It didn't take more than a minute for her to fall asleep.

The next day was better. She still missed Dazzle but it was only dull ache now. He would be back in a few days, she was able to be without him for that time. On her second day alone, someone who wanted to train with her appeared. Or maybe he just wanted to challenge her. It was one of those stupid-as-fuck males and she sneered as she saw him approaching. Arrogant and too full of himself. Thought he was better than her simply because she was female and he was male.

Well, it didn't take her long to prove him wrong. She knocked him down in their first fight within seconds. He didn't believe it, said she'd simply had luck and went at her again. The result was the same, him lying flat on his back, her standing above him, weapon pointing at his throat. She had to win five times before he really believed that she was better, that she was as good as they said. And the Commander hated it. Hated that she had to prove herself like that.

At least now the fucking male was eager to learn from her, probably wanted to be able to defeat her. That would never happen. Not because she didn't want to teach him everything she knew but because he wasn't good enough to become as good as her. It wasn't in him. What he had, though, was strength. He was way bigger than Tresdin and he was heavily muscled.

The first day of the Commander training the male went without any incidents. He did what she told him without complaining and she was almost pleased with him in the evening. They stopped training when the sun began to set. She showed him a room he could use and told him to stay away from her's and Dazzle's.

Only then did the sadness from the day before come back. It hit her with force as she got something to eat from the things the troll had prepared for her. She took it with her into his room and sat on his bed while she ate it. Then she lay down, leaving everything lying next to the bed, and huddled herself into his scent. Fuck, she missed him.

The next day was okay, but the evening was bad again. And on the fourth day she couldn't stop herself from looking for a sign that Dazzle was coming back. He had been gone a few days now and she wanted him to come back. She scanned the sky every five minutes, watched the path that came up and the one that went up. She couldn't concentrate on the fighting and this time she wasn't as lucky as with the orc female. The fucking male saw an opening in one of their training fights and, just as the Commander did, he hit full force, didn't even try to soften the blow. He hit her hard on the side of her face and the Legion Commander was thrown backwards, skidding over the ground a few feet. Her head rand from the hit but she was up again in a second, well aware that her opponent would be over her fast. He was, but she was faster, had her weapon ready to block his attack, evade another one and have him on his back before he could attack a third time.

Her teeth were clenched tightly against the pain that was coming in waves from where he had hit her. Her vision was dotted but she saw enough to recognize the frustration on the male's face about her defeating him again. And though she would have liked nothing more than to make a break, to cool her face and to lie down for a bit, she knew that she could never do that while the male was watching her. It would be a sign of weakness, though he had probably almost broken her jaw or even her skull with the force of his hit and it would be only normal for anyone to feel pain afterwards. But as it was, she kept going. She was more concentrated now, didn't allow her eyes to wander as often as before. Or her mind. Because she definitely didn't want to get hit a second time.

It was difficult to take the helmet off when she was in the house. Her face was swollen and it hurt as fuck. She sighed and put the helmet on the ground. Her eyes wandered through the room (of course she was in Dazzle's room again) and they fixed on the bottles with finished potions.

Tresdin stood up and walked over, scanning the bottle, which were all _labelled_. And on one of them she read the words 'healing salve'. On the back of the bottle was a short instruction how to use the potion and she followed it. The pain on her face was dulled immediately and she sighed again. She ate and lay down on the bed. She hoped the Shadow Priest would come back tomorrow. He was already gone four days. Next time she'd go with him, no matter where he went.

The swelling on her face retreated during the night. The Legion Commander had no problem to put her helmet back on the next morning. Her face was tender on the side and it would probably hurt during the training but it was much better than the day before.

The sun was high in the sky before the male joined her. With this laziness he'd never get any better but Tresdin refrained from pointing it out to him. She was only here to show him what mistakes he made in a fight, and not how he had to change his habits to actually get better. If he was nice to her, she would point a few things out for him, but she didn't bother with stupid assholes. The male didn't go through any warm-up routine, either, just swung his weapon a few times before he faced her and demanded they start the training. He had improved over the days he had been here but it wouldn't get much better with this attitude. But whatever. Not her problem.

The Legion Commander tried to concentrate on the fight, though she was longing with every fibre of her being for the Shadow Priest to come back. If she didn't have a pupil, she'd probably be sitting in front of her house, staring at the sky nonstop, waiting for a griffon or something to come in.

When she finally heard the rustling of wings, her heart skipped a beat. It was only very soft, the troll having probably landed as far away as possible as not to disturb her in her training. The male saw the stutter in her movements and thought he could get through her defences again, but Tresdin wasn't stupid. She ducked and kicked his feet from under his body before he realized what had happened.

She made sure he knew that he had been defeated before she turned away to look into the direction the sound had come from.

It was the Shadow Priest. He just scratched the wyvern, which had flown him here, behind an ear before the beast took off, back to where it had come from. Then the troll turned around and smiled at her. And Tresdin had to fight hard not to run towards him with fully speed in her joy to have him back.

She walked over, trying to take normal steps while she pulled her helmet off. Her eyes were fixed on Dazzle and her heart beat hard and fast. She smiled back at him and when she stood in front of him, she dropped her weapon and helmet and hugged him. She took a deep breath while she buried her nose in his hair. It was uncomfortable because her armour made her bigger than she was and she didn't feel anything through the metal. The backpack on Dazzle's back made it impossible for her to put her arms properly around him. But fuck, it felt good to be able to hug him like that.

The Shadow Priest chuckled. "I'm glad to be back. I missed you, too."

She wanted to deny it because it was a weakness she didn't want to show. But, aside from the fact that her hug totally would have revealed the lie it would have been, she didn't want to lie to the troll. She _had_ missed him. Badly.

They separated but when he looked at her, his smile vanished, was replaced by a frown. He raised his hand but let it drop about halfway to her face. "What happened to you?"

So the hit from the male was visible. Which wasn't a surprise, it was rather that she'd already forgotten about it. Tresdin grimaced. "My thoughts were elsewhere and I got hit during training."

"Someone was able to hit you? Flat out like that?" He sounded disbelieving, and rightly so. He had in all her trainings never seen anyone landing a hit, especially not like that. "Your thoughts must've been very far away." He snorted and walked past her towards the house, luckily not seeing her blush that had appeared at his statement.

The Commander grabbed her weapon and helmet and followed him. She trailed past him like a lost puppy, through the house and into his room. Where he stopped suddenly and Tresdin almost ran into him. A glance over his shoulder showed her why: the bed was a mess, the dishes from the day before were piled next to it and dirty clothes were strewn all over the floor. It was absolutely obvious that she had been in the room and not only for a few moments. Or even hours.

"Why have you been in my room?" Dazzle turned slowly around and this time, he couldn't miss the blush on her face.

Tresdin tried to come up with a reason that didn't make her sound needy and soft and desperate, but what could she say to explain her sleeping in his bed? "Um, I…"

There was no reason. The Legion Commander clenched her teeth and closed her eyes, as if her not looking at the troll while she confessed to him would make it easier. "I missed you and the bed smelled like you and it was the only way I could sleep while you were gone."

Now, she had said it. She opened her eyes a crack to see Dazzle's expression. He seemed relieved.

"For a second I thought you had moved me out while I was gone."

"Why would I do that?" That was really a stupid thought. And unfounded. Tresdin frowned.

Dazzle shrugged. "Don't know. Maybe you've had enough of me. Or you liked my room better. Or just to annoy me."

"That would be an extremely strange way to annoy someone."

"That it would be." The troll was smiling again as he went into the room. He put his backpack down and began to clean the mess Tresdin had made of the room. It spurred her into action, too, because no way would she stand by and watch him tidy up her stuff. Then she helped him to unpack his things. She had completely forgotten that she had a pupil, who was probably waiting for her in the training area. Dazzle was back and he was the only thing on her mind right now. "How was your trip? Was it successful?"

The mass of herbs he retrieved from the backpack should have been answer enough but Tresdin wanted to hear him talking. And he talked, about everything. Whom he had visited, what they had done together, where he had been, which herbs he had gathered and so on. Meanwhile he sorted the herbs, putting labels on all of them before they were stacked in the shelves. He put a few aside with which he began to make some kind of ointment.

They had finished tidying up, the backpack was stored away and Tresdin was sitting on the bed, watching the shaman do his work while listening to him. From time to time he sniffed the ointment after which he'd add something. When he was satisfied, he put the ingredients away. His room was so neat, it was fascinating. How he could keep this neatness throughout his work, was even more fascinating.

The Shadow Priest grabbed the pot with the ointment and held it out for the Legion Commander. "It's for your face. To make the bruises go away faster and to get your normal skin colour back."

"Oh, thank you." The ointment smelled strongly of herbs the Commander couldn't name. She dipped her fingers in and smeared the paste on her face. The troll watched for a second before he turned away.

Just then Tresdin's pupil decided he had waited long enough. Heavy footsteps sounded from the living room. "Hey Legion Commander, don't you think you had enough time now to prepare for our next fight? I'm getting bored out here. One might think you are afraid to face me again!"

Dazzle's eyes widened. Then he leaned towards Tresdin and whispered: "Didn't you knock him on his back enough times? Why is he still so arrogant?"

The Legion Commander could only shrug at that. "Some males just never learn from their failures. I'll just keep beating him until he has either learned it, died, or decided he's had enough and leaves."

"Maybe you shouldn't have let him hit you. Made him more confident I think." At the look she gave him, he held his hands up in surrender and laughed. "Only joking."

Reluctant to leave, but not wanting to chance the stupid male outside to get even more arrogant than he already was, she put her helmet on and grabbed her weapon before she stepped into the training area. She completely ignored the male until the moment he attacked her. From the side, probably because he thought his chances were better that way. They weren't. He was too loud as he charged her, his movements too slow, obvious and predictable. She had told him that countless times now but he changed nothing in his tactics. He still thought that his strength was all he ever needed. She guessed he would learn nothing more from her at this point and when he'd leave he would have learned little during the training with the Commander. His loss, not hers.

Before, she'd had to force herself to concentrate and it had been exhausting. But now that Dazzle was back, her mind relaxed and her body moved effortless and without her having to force her thoughts back on the task at hand.

The fucking male seemed to realize it, because he got more and more desperate in his efforts to get through her defences and hit her. Tresdin wanted to make a break and tell him what he did wrong, but he didn't stop. He kept charging her like some mindless fuck, and so she kept blocking him. It didn't take the male long to be completely out of breath while the Legion Commander had barely broken a sweat. She didn't understand him. She could teach him so much but he wasn't interested anymore. At the beginning he had listened to her instructions but over the days it had changed. Probably he had only come here to defeat her, at least once, and he was too stupid to realize that he had zero chance in achieving this goal. Maybe he had hoped that after two days of training with her he had picked up enough new skills and enough information about her fighting style to defeat her. It didn't work like that.

She would give him this day, maybe one more, depending on how much patience she could summon, then she'd send him away. Fuck, she hated males. They were so unreasonable, it made her want to punch them all in the face.

When the Shadow Priest appeared in her field of vision and stopped on the side of the training area, she decided the male had pushed himself enough. She put him flat on the ground in a heartbeat and he was so exhausted, he didn't even try to get up.

They were halfway through dinner before the male joined them. Afterwards, Tresdin went inside to put her armour away. She was almost giddy with joy about the fact that she'd finally be able to watch the sunset with Dazzle again. Fuck, she had missed him.

When she came out of her room, she could hear the male talking outside. She didn't really listen as she went into the kitchen to get something to drink first. The word 'fuck' from the male made he cock her ears and stop moving to be able to understand him better.

The male laughed. "Do you clean her house, too? Like some little housewife? I've seen how it looked while you were away. Did you have to ask permission to leave? Weakling. She made you her little bitch and you even enjoy it. How a male, even a pink troll like you, can stoop so low, I can't understand. If I didn't find it so funny to sea you licking her shoes, I'd find it disgusting." He laughed again.

Tresdin was frozen in shock for long moments. How could someone talk like that to Dazzle? Did he really think that? That he was her bitch? Then the anger came. It was red-hot and it burned through her body.

"I will only say it this once." The Shadow Priest sounded calm, unbelievable considering how he had just been insulted. "You will leave. Now."

The male just kept laughing at these words. "Or what? You going to call your _master_? You think she'll protect her little troll puppy?"

The Legion Commander was at the door, intending to _hurt_ this fucking asshole until he was sobbing from pain. Before she could open the door, she heard the troll cast his first spell. As she opened the door, he was standing in front of the male, his staff in his hands, pink energy all around both of them. It swirled and moved and with every spell the shaman cast, it changed. It attacked, cut through the armour of the male while it protected the Shadow Priest as his opponent decided to try and counter the attack. The Commander froze and watched.

In the town wars, Tresdin had seen him fight, but only ever in a supporting role, never in a one-on-one battle. Besides, in the town wars some abilities worked slightly different and some didn't work at all, so it could happen that a creature was much weaker in a town war than it was outside of it.

From the look of it, the Shadow Priest was one of them. The way he wove a pattern of pink energy around the male in front of him, which was now streaked with green, was something he wasn't able to do during a town war.

The male was starting to breath heavy as he tried to hit the troll. His movements were much slower than usual and his skin turned paler with every passing second. Tresdin could see how he clenched his teeth and she thought he had to be in pain, judging from the expression on his face.

After maybe a minute, during which the Legion Commander watched in fascination how the Shadow Priest wielded his powers, the weapon of the male clattered to the ground, followed by the male himself, who wasn't able to remain standing. On the ground he curled into a tight ball, making pained noises.

Dazzle waited a few moments, listening to the groaning of the male, before he slowly let the energy around them fade. The male didn't move. The troll tapped him on the shoulder with his staff. Nothing. He rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath before he tapped him again, this time harder. "Get on your feet and run while you can. If you stay here a minute longer, I'll call the poison back and you'll never again stop hurting." His voice was still calm, as if he hadn't just defeated a strong warrior with ease.

Tresdin was, to say the least, impressed.

The male opened his eyes carefully and unfolded his body. When the troll shaman just stared at him, he grabbed his weapon and ran faster than the Commander had ever seen him run.

As soon as he was gone, Dazzle sighed, all tension leaving his body as he leaned on his staff.

"I didn't know you were that strong." Tresdin walked towards him, smiling. She had been more than ready to kick the fucking male into oblivion for insulting Dazzle, but he hadn't needed her help. It made her feel strange and she wasn't yet sure if she liked the new feeling or not.

"I'm the Dazzle. Of course I'm strong." But he looked tired now. Using so much magic had to take its toll.

Tresdin linked her arm with his and together they walked to their place to watch the sunset. "I would've sent him away tomorrow anyway. He was an arrogant asshole. Wasn't willing to learn anything more from me. His sole goal was to defeat me once in a fight."

They sat down, Dazzle leaning against her immediately, and she wrapped her arm around him. The Legion Commander hesitated, but she felt she had to ask the troll. "You don't feel like that, do you? What the fucker said?"

"What? No, of course not. Why would I? We are friends, I do the things I do because I want to. You never ask me to do anything for you, neither the cooking nor the cleaning." He yawned, his head heavy on her shoulder. "It's good to be back."

"I'm glad you are back." And because she had missed it so much, she buried her nose in his hair, which was as soft as always, and took a deep breath. Today there was only a hint of herbs, but she could smell the warmth from his home, as well as the dust and the wind from the journey. And him.

She could feel the Shadow Priest falling asleep by her side and decided this wasn't the most comfortable place for that. Besides, she was tired, too, and so she stood up and pulled the sleepy troll with her.

He didn't go to his room, though he was barely awake by now, but followed Tresdin to hers. He lay down on her bed, let his staff drop to the floor, and was sound asleep within seconds. Incredulous, the Legion Commander stared at the troll sleeping in her bed. Then she laughed softly, shaking her head. She had two options now, first she could go to his room and sleep in his bed, or, second, she could join him and sleep next to him. Her bed wasn't huge but it wasn't too small to offer room for two.

She took her shirt, pants and boots off and, now only in her underwear but not caring the least about it, crawled into her bed. She pushed Dazzle a little to one side to have enough space, and pulled the blanked from underneath his body to put it over both of them. She fell asleep quickly, surrounded by the warmth and the scent of the troll shaman.


	12. Chapter 11

For a second the Legion Commander felt fear, because she couldn't move. It was gone faster than it had appeared, her body recognising the feel of Dazzle. He was lying half on top of her, his leg over her hip, his arm over her stomach, his head on her shoulder. He was heavy, warm, breathing over her skin slowly and evenly. The tension that had gripped her faded and Tresdin relaxed into the hold the troll had over her. She should get up, she knew it, but, fuck, it felt good to lie in bed like that.

So she closed her eyes again and put the hand that wasn't trapped under Dazzle's body on his arm. She didn't go back to sleep but, still drowsy, began to trace tiny circles on the troll's arm. His skin felt different than hers, a little rougher and warmer and somehow thicker. Tresdin began to explore the body that was draped over her with her hand, curious about the differences and the similarities between a troll and a human. She had been with non-human females, too, so maybe the differences came from him being male and not from him being troll.

His muscles were well defined, she could feel them and followed them up his arm and to his shoulder. He wasn't bulky but he wasn't soft, either. His body seemed to be built for endurance rather than brute strength. It was fascinating and Tresdin had to admit it felt astonishingly good to touch him like that, to feel his body underneath her fingers.

At his shoulder, she couldn't resist (of course not) to brush through his hair. How he got it to be so soft while the rest of his body was so firm was beyond her, but it was nice. She kept stroking through his hair, sometimes over his shoulder and arm because of the contrast it provided. When she craped her nails over his scalp softly, he hummed deep in his throat and snuggled closer. He didn't wake up though and so, intrigued by his response and amused by the sound he had made, she repeated the motion.

Dazzle hummed again. And then, suddenly, she could feel him getting hard at her hip. The Legion Commander had never been with a male but that didn't mean she didn't know what that meant. She froze, unsure how to react to that. It was definitely a response to her actions but she hadn't considered that this might happen. Though she had stopped moving, the troll hummed again and pressed his now obviously hard shaft against her body. He rubbed his nose over the skin at her neck and tightened his hold.

Tresdin's mind whirled. She didn't know what to do, what to think or even feel. Was she disgusted? She didn't think so. But she couldn't define her feelings, was torn between how much she liked the feeling of his body against hers and the wish to push him away because he reacted like that to her touch, because he was a _male_.

His hand stroked over her naked stomach down to the waistband of her panties. That was the moment she had to do _something_. "Um, Dazzle?"

"Oh fucking shit!" The troll was so fast out of the bed that he stumbled over his staff and fell on his arse. He stared at Tresdin with wide eyes. And the Legion Commander couldn't help herself, she laughed. The way he had jumped away from her, how he was looking at her, the fact that he had used swear words, it all combined was definitely funny. Because, damn if she had ever seen the Shadow Priest anything but calm and this outburst as well as him being flustered like that… Funny as fuck.

"Stop laughing! This isn't funny! Why was I even sleeping in the same bed as you?"

When she was able to speak, Tresdin propped herself up on one elbow, still grinning. "You fell asleep yesterday before I could kick you out. And since it is my bed, I didn't want to go somewhere else."

"Oh." He seemed to get his composure back but then he must have realized that she was only in her underwear because he blushed furiously and pointedly looked away from her body. "Um, you have paint everywhere."

She did. The paint on his face was smeared and much of it was now on Tresdin's shoulder, neck and even breasts. He had moved his face quite a lot over her skin from the looks of it.

The Shadow Priest got up and he tried so hard to cover his erection that it couldn't be missed.

"Um, well, I think… I'll just go. You probably want to wash. And start your training. And I have lots of things to do, and it's already late, and…" the troll stopped, grimaced and almost ran out of the room. He left his staff in his haste to get away from this for him very embarrassing situation.

Tresdin fell on her back, laughing again. She still wasn't sure what to make of this, how to feel after she had woken up like that, after she had _enjoyed_ waking up like that so much, but his reaction to the situation was simply too funny.

She was in a good temper the whole day, while Dazzle was somehow skittish around her. When they sat down to watch the sunset and he didn't lean against her as he normally did, she decided she had enough. She pulled him to her, pushed his head against her shoulder and buried a hand in his hair to hold him close.

She did realize that he angled his hips away from her and that he was more tense than usual but he didn't make any attempt to get away and he even sighed a little. That was enough for the moment.

Watching the sun, the Shadow Priest by her site, the Legion Commander relaxed. Throughout the training on this day, she had tried to puzzle out her feelings about the situation with the troll this morning. She hadn't come very far but she was sure, absolutely and one-hundred percent sure, that it didn't bother her or disgust her or anything. It was normal to get aroused by something like that, if the roles would have been reversed, she'd probably have gotten aroused, too, the difference being that it wasn't so obvious with a female.

But if it didn't bother her, it raised only more questions she had to answer for herself. And with some of them she wasn't sure if she wanted an answer, because she was a little afraid of what she might learn about herself and her relationship with a certain, definitely male, troll. She, as a very proud and very sure about this fact lesbian. So she pushed those questions firmly away and concentrated on the here and now. "Dazzle, I'm not mad or anything about this morning. I hope you know that."

She could feel his smile against her shoulder. "I know." And though he said it, he only now relaxed, too. It wasn't hard to fall back into their usual pattern, watching the sunset then cleaning her armour, the troll telling her stories in the meantime. When she was finished, he went to his room and Tresdin was alone.

But her bed, it still smelled like Dazzle and with a smile on her lips, she fell asleep.

The next days were uneventful. There was no new pupil and the Legion Commander used the time to go through some new techniques and test some new weapons. Only, day after day, her bed smelled less of Dazzle when she fell asleep. She had to search for a spot where she could bury her nose into until one night she lay awake, staring at the ceiling. There was no trace of him left and she couldn't sleep. He was only one wall away from her but it was too much.

She debated what she should do for more than an hour but it was useless. She was tired but her body refused to fall asleep. She began to pace her room, not sure what she should do. Should she go to him? And then? Ask him to sleep in a bed with her? Ask him for something that smelled like him? Maybe sleep on the floor of his room?

All these options were kind of strange but the fact that she couldn't sleep without smelling the Shadow Priest was strange on its own.

She took a deep breath, maybe for courage, and opened her door. There was light on in the living room and, frowning, she followed it.

Leaning against the counter of the kitchen and staring out into the dark of the night was Dazzle. He was only wearing some underpants. His hair was braided into one thick plait and the rest of his paint was smeared over his face.

"Hey." The troll turned his head at the sound of her voice. "Why are you up in the middle of the night?"

He shrugged. "I couldn't sleep very well the last nights. Including this one. And you?"

Tresdin stared at him. "I couldn't sleep tonight." Because he hadn't been there. Was that the reason why he had slept badly the last nights? Because she hadn't been there? He had slept like the dead when he had been in her bed. "You want to sleep with me in my bed again?"

His breath caught and he froze for a second. Then he shook his head. "I don't think that's a good idea." He glanced at her and for the tiniest moment, his gaze dropped before he caught himself and turned away to look out of the window again. Not that there was anything to see in the darkness outside.

Understanding dawned. He was afraid it would happen again, his arousal. But why was he afraid? She'd said she wasn't angry and she wouldn't get angry should it happen again. "Dazzle." She stepped closer until their bodies were almost touching. "I can't sleep without you." There, she had said it out loud. Because it wasn't only his scent, it was _him_. She wanted to sleep next to him.

He didn't look at her, only let his forehead drop against the window, and shuddered. "I can't sleep without you, too." The words were so quiet, she could barely hear them. "That's why I was so tired when I returned. I couldn't sleep one fucking minute while I was away. Here it is at least a little better, I get enough sleep to be functional."

"Then why don't you want to sleep with me?" Tresdin was confused by it, while she was strangely pleased that he needed her this much.

He turned around then, his face only inches away from hers. "Because it is too much. You are too much. I don't want to lose your friendship because my body reacts to your proximity. And I can't supress it." He closed his eyes, shuddered again and, as if he couldn't help himself, as if to prove what he had just said, he swayed forward until she could feel his breath on her face, the warmth of his skin against hers.

And because it didn't matter, because he wouldn't lose her friendship only because he found her proximity arousing, she slung her arms around him and hugged him close. She did try not to bump her hip against his lower body. Not because she had a problem with finding him hard but because she wasn't stupid and she knew that it wouldn't make it better for him when she touched him, then. She buried one hand in his hair, couldn't resist it, and the other between his shoulder blades. For a moment he was stiff and then he hugged her back, his nose in the crook of her neck. "Tresdin." It was only a whisper but she could hear his relief in this one word.

"Come." She stepped back and pulled him forward with her hand around his wrist. "Sleep with me."

He didn't refuse again. It took some shuffling because he was still afraid to touch her, to initiate cuddling. But Tresdin had enough. She knew they'd both sleep so much better when they slept together and so she pulled him tight against her. "Sleep." It was an order and it was a sign of his exhaustion that he didn't answer back but just sighed. In only moments, he was fully asleep. Only then did he shift closer, taking the position they had woken in the last time. He slung half of his body around hers and the Commander smiled before she, too, fell asleep.

The next morning, not like the first time they had slept together, she got up as normal. The only difference to her usual mornings was that she made sure Dazzle was properly blanketed. She did sneak a peek at his half naked body, though. Because she found it absolutely fascinating that he was pink all over.

Then she went out for her morning routine. Fuck, but she felt good. Had slept better than the previous nights. When Dazzle had his first and her second breakfast ready, she was already covered in sweat.

"Good morning. You feeling better today?" The troll definitely seemed to be better. The Legion Commander hadn't realized how tired he had looked, even with his painted face, but now that he had slept a night through, she saw the difference.

The Shadow Priest nodded and smiled at her. "Thank you."

"For what? For forcing you to sleep with me?"

He laughed at that. "Yeah, but mostly for being so understanding and sensitive."

"Because those are not my strongest traits. And you are glad I could dig up this tiny portion of both." She raised her eyebrows at him.

"Kind of." He was still laughing at her. "The Tresdin I met first in the town war would have probably insulted me and hit me for every single thing I did and said yesterday."

"Oh, don't worry, if any other male would try only half the things you do I'd still react that way. But we are friends and I like and, most of all, respect you. And I trust you. Those are things no other male ever achieved. And only a handful of females." It was true. It was hard to earn her trust, especially as a male. But the Shadow Priest had accomplished it without even trying to do so. It was amazing.

He shook his head. "I adore you."

The Legion Commander stared at the troll who resumed eating as if he hadn't just said that. Maybe it was normal for him to say things like that but the Commander was sure no one had ever said those words to her. Never. She simply wasn't adorable.

She snorted and shook her head. Adorable. Her. She decided to change the subject. There was something she had wanted to ask him for the last days. It had been in her head when she had trained but when she had sat with him, she had always forgotten about it. "Dazzle?"

"Yes?"

"Why, when you are so strong, when you are able to defeat someone as easily as you have done with the male here a few days ago, why do you always have the supporting role in the town wars?"

"Because I can." He smiled. "I have abilities that are useful in that role. I don't care if I have to support arrogant assholes, even less before I met you because I was high most of the time anyway. Which was probably a reason why me being in any other role wouldn't have been very successful. And besides, my abilities are much weaker in a town war than they are outside of it."

"Doesn't it bother you that others think you are weak because you only are a support?"

"Tresdin, has no one ever told you that a support isn't necessarily weak?"

"Of course, the supports say that all the time. Doesn't make it true automatically when they all say it. I never met one who was a real challenge for me." Not many heroes in the town wars were a challenge for her anyway.

"Doesn't mean they are all weak, though."

"Probably true."

"So... I think I'm a support in most town wars because I'm not ambitious enough to be something else. The role fits me."

"I would go crazy in your place." For someone to choose this role freely, it was something she couldn't understand. It was such a thankless task and especially as a female it was hard. All these macho males on the allied side and all those who thought females were an easy target on the enemy side.

"Oh come on, you would be such a cute support."

Tresdin narrowed her eyes as she looked at him. "No."

"Of course! All the males would dig you!"

"No."

"Yeah! Just think about it, how they'd always try to protect you and how they'd ..."

The Legion Commander interrupted the troll. "You think that's funny?"

He had the nerve to laugh at her. "I love it when you look at me like that, as if you're not sure if you should just punch me in the face."

" _That_ is what you find funny?" He was suicidal. Undeniable. But maybe, after she had seen him in a fight, she was wrong about that. Maybe he didn't fear her not because he didn't think she'd punch him but because he knew that he could prevent her from actually hitting him. "Dazzle?"

"Yeah?"

"I want you to show me. In the training area. What you can do." She was already getting up. The stupid male hadn't been that bad as a warrior and suddenly she wanted to know if the troll shaman was as strong as she was.

"Um... must I?" He wrinkled his nose as he looked up to her. "I'd prefer not to."

"Why? I won't hurt you."

The fucking troll laughed at that, again. "You think I'm afraid of you hurting me?"

"It seems that way. What other reason could you have not to want to fight against me?"

Still laughing, he grabbed his staff and got up, too. "Okay, then."

Tresdin hadn't put her armour on, yet, and she decided to leave it like that. It was only a training fight. Against the Shadow Priest.

They faced each other in the middle of the training area. "Any rules I have to know?"

"Rules? In a fight?" Even in a training fight there were no rules, except maybe not to hurt the other too much, to cripple him or kill him. Aside from that: "No. No rules. Ready?" She would have to be careful with the troll, since he didn't wear any armour and she really didn't want to hurt him. Not like with her usual pupils, with whom she couldn't care less if they got bruises or cuts.

The Legion Commander made sure Dazzle was prepared, then she charged. She didn't get very far before she was hit by _something_. It didn't cause any pain but she felt as if she was wading through water. No, worse, through something really sticky. She could see the troll in front of her, saw him taking a step backwards while he watched her, his staff pointing towards her. But she couldn't get her body to move fast enough to strike a hit. If she hit him in that speed, he could sidestep her weapon with ease, not to mention that she'd not do any damage. What the fuck was that?

It took only a few seconds, but the time would have been more than enough for Dazzle to cast his next spell. He hadn't, though, was just standing there and watching. Okay, so he had an ability to slow his opponent. No problem, she'd just have to get behind him or something fast enough to hit him before he could hit her with this slow. She jumped, but the shaman was fast. He had her slowed again before her feet were back on the ground. But, as before, he did nothing else. No follow up spell.

"Dazzle. This is a fight. You should attack sometime, too."

He sighed. She charged again. And before Tresdin knew what happened, she was writhing on the ground in pain. She had dropped her weapon and groaned as she tried to block the pain out. She couldn't get up, couldn't even get her eyes to open, couldn't get her body to do anything. There was nothing but pain, so fucking much pain! It lasted only a second, maybe two, then the pain was gone.

Tresdin waited a moment, lying on the ground panting, to be sure everything was all right, that nothing in her body was broken. Then she looked up at the troll shaman, who was leaning on his staff casually while he watched her. He seemed relaxed, nothing in his posture hinting at the fact that he had just defeated _her_ , the Legion Commander, within _seconds_. To put it mildly, she was shocked.

When she only stared at him from her curled up position on the ground, he frowned. "Tresdin?" He dropped his staff and knelt at her shoulder, stroking over her temple with the pad of his finger lightly. "Are you okay? I'm sorry, I didn't want to hurt you. Is the pain gone? You insisted. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have listened to you."

"You defeated me." She was definitely still in shock. The pain was gone, but her mind couldn't process what had happened.

Dazzle grimaced. "Yeah, I think so. Sorry."

He apologized for defeating her? That was definitely wrong. But how had he been able to get her on the ground that fast? "Did you use magic?" Because if so, the Commander was able to use something that blocked magic. That way everything he did would have no effect on her.

"Not really magic, no. It is poison. I think getting it into your body is magic but it is a kind of magic that is almost impossible to block." He was stroking through her hair now and Tresdin slowly relaxed. Fuck, she had never ever thought that this pink troll shaman could have it in him to defeat her. Not the way he always stood back and never talked about his abilities and his power. She had completely underestimated him.

And though he had just defeated her, there was only concern on his features. Concern for her, because he had hurt her. Tresdin was sure that she had never met anyone like him. She could probably win against him, but she definitely had to use armour and different kinds of weapons for that. Something to block the magic, something to get to him so he couldn't detect her. She thought about getting all her stuff and trying it again, this time with the full knowledge of what he could do.

But then she just smiled up at him. There was no use in trying again. She'd be like all those creatures who tried repeatedly to defeat her. Maybe she was able to win with lots of stuff to help her. But she wouldn't try it, for several reasons. First being that it didn't matter. He had defeated her this time and no matter how often she'd win against him in the future, this one victory would always remain. Second probably was the fact that he didn't gloat about it or anything. He hadn't wanted to fight against her but she had pushed him. And the third reason was that she didn't really want to lose again, which was a possibility, even if she didn't like it.

Fuck, but she had been arrogant. Tresdin rolled onto her back and stared at the sky above her. Then she laughed. "Fuck, you are strong."

Dazzle blew out a breath and sat down heavily beside her. "Sorry."

"Hey," she turned her head. "Stop apologizing. You won. It's okay."

He still looked weary, but he nodded.

"Amazing." And though she had just lost a fight, the Legion Commander was smiling.


	13. Chapter 12

The rest of the day, as she continued her training, Tresdin thought about Dazzle and their training fight. And his reactions afterwards. She had never met someone this strong who was so modest and didn't brag about his abilities. It was as if the troll just wanted to live in peace, not caring about what others thought about him.

She had tried not to care about what others thought about her, but it always made her so angry, especially the males thinking less of her because she was female. She wasn't like that. She had to prove them all wrong. Of course there were things she didn't care about, for example when they said she was messy or arrogant. But there were enough things that she simply couldn't ignore.

The fucking troll had again achieved to amaze her. Un-fucking-believable.

Just thinking about it made her smile.

The Legion Commander had never been defeated like that but somehow she wasn't angry, as she would have thought she'd be.

"Hey Tresdin?"

She looked up and faced the Shadow Shaman.

"Everything all right? You were smiling while you were hacking at the air with your weapon. Makes me uneasy."

"Yes!" Deciding she had done enough for the day, she slung one arm around the troll's shoulders and steered him towards the house where she leaned her weapon against the wall. "I feel good, that's all."

He snorted. "That's only a little creepy. Especially when it shows that way. Have you ever seen someone smiling while fighting?" He didn't wait for an answer, but she'd only have said 'no' anyway. "I'm glad you feel good, though. I wasn't sure how you'd react to our training fight after you had time to think about it."

Tresdin pulled him closer and pusher her nose into the soft hair at his temple. "It's fine."

Because there was time before the sun would set, the Commander decided to join the troll shaman while he made some potions and stuff. She watched him, how he concentrated on the vials and pots in front of him while he took things from the shelves and put them away again. He sniffed at some ingredients and at the vials sometimes, while he only looked closely at others. Tresdin had no fucking idea what he was doing but it was fascinating to watch him. And he was quiet. He didn't say one word during more than an hour though he was normally always talking about this and that.

She would have liked to help him but she didn't even know the names of the ingredients, least of all what to do with them, or where they were on the shelves. So she simply watched.

After Dazzle had sniffed on a pot, he wrinkled his nose before he rubbed over his cheek with the back of one hand. He smeared the paint on the whole side of his face.

"Dazzle?"

He looked up and blinked, as if he had totally forgotten that she was there. Then he smiled. "Hey."

"Can I see you without the paint?"

"Um, really?"

Fuck, she was curious. She had only ever seen him with his face painted in this same way. Sometimes the paint was smeared, as now, but she had never seen him without it. He made it new every morning, but never ran around unpainted for longer than a few moments. And since Tresdin was always training in the morning when the troll finally got up, she had never met him then.

"Now?"

"Why not?" Tresdin raised her brows as he hesitated. "You hiding something underneath the paint?"

He shrugged. "Only my face without paint. It's just that no one has seen me without it for years."

"Okay. You want me to promise not to laugh or something?"

The troll snorted. "No. I don't care if you laugh about me without the paint." There was a basin with water on one of the tables. Tresdin always washed up outside so he must have gotten the basin himself for making his face.

When he had washed his face, he turned around. He was looking on the ground and though he had said he didn't care, he seemed nervous and unsure of himself. Tresdin slid from the bed she had been sitting on and walked towards him. He certainly looked different now, normal. His mouth, though wide, wasn't as prominent and his eyes were brighter, as if the colour somehow dulled them. He had said, when she had first asked him if she could see him without his paint, weeks ago, that he was ugly. Or at least not pretty. Well, he was no human, so he didn't look beautiful as some of them, or as maybe blood elves did. He was a troll but for a troll, Tresdin thought, he definitely wasn't ugly. A pink troll with bright, pale green eyes and a mouth made for smiling.

She tipped his chin upward a tad with one finger so he looked her into the eyes. She let her gaze roam over his features and when that wasn't enough, she followed it with the tips of her fingers. She let them trail over his forehead, his eye brows, which were never visible when he was painted. Down his cheek and over his chin, then back and up to his ears. His uneasiness faded, morphed into amusement, the corners of his mouth lifting. And so she brushed against those corners with her thumbs while her hands framed his face. His smile looked different now, too, more like a friendly smile and less like a creepy grin.

Her fingers brushed against his hair and, as always, she couldn't resist the softness of it and slid one hand through the pink and purple strands. "So, it isn't too bad? Without the paint?"

Tresdin raised her brows at the question. "I thought you didn't care about what I think of you without the paint."

"Not exactly the words I used, but anyway, I might have lied a little."

It was different, but it wasn't bad, definitely not. It was strange, though, that he was so insecure without the paint. As if he was standing in front of her naked, nothing to hide himself behind, while she scrutinized him.

"It's okay." Well, that sounded bad, and it wasn't. It was more than okay. "It's _good_." And then she would have almost done something really, really stupid. She leaned forward, one of her hands still on the side of his face, the other in his hair, and she almost brushed her lips against his. Their faces were so near, she could feel the warmth from his body, could feel how he had stopped breathing when she had moved forward, her intention too clear.

In the last second, right before their lips would have touched, she stopped herself. A wave of _something_ raced through her body, something like fear or shock. She pulled her hands away from the troll's body as if he was suddenly on fire and stared at him with wide eyes. Tresdin could see her shock mirrored in Dazzle's features. They didn't move for long moments, just standing in front of each other, staring, both not knowing what just had happened and how to react.

"Fuck." Tresdin rubbed her palm over her face. She wasn't sure what that had been about but she had almost kissed a male just now. And he had done nothing to cause it. Nothing to make her want to do it. It was totally without reason, totally irrational.

Not knowing what to do, what to feel, she left the room. Without conscious thought, she went to the place where they always sat to watch the sunset. The sun was still too high up but simply sitting there eased the Legion Commander. She closed her eyes and took controlled and even breaths. Her mind was in turmoil but before she could sort through her confused thoughts she had to get them to stop coursing through her head like that. Had to calm down.

A few minutes later, Dazzle found her. "Hey. Are you okay? I'm sorry." He didn't join her but kept standing at the edge of the trunk.

"Whatever are you sorry for? And why did you paint your face again?"

The troll shrugged. "I'm not sure but I think I'm sorry for making you feel uncomfortable. And I put the paint on so I look like I normally do. I thought it would make you feel better when I'm around. May I sit?"

Tresdin sighed. "I'm not that sensitive. And of course you can sit." She turned her focus away from Dazzle, staring at the horizon. She didn't feel _uncomfortable_ , she was just confused. But, if she had to be true to herself, everything had been leading up to such a situation. It shouldn't be such a big surprise, but somehow it was. If she thought about everything, from the beginning, there were so many signs that their relationship was much more than a simple friendship. It started with her having felt lonely in a town war without the troll. Still normal enough. Then her anger, or better fury, at seeing him high on drugs when she had visited him. Next was her jealousy, because that was what it had been, when the female troll warrior had been in his house with him while she had to stay out. Her demotivation at seducing the cute troll rogue. Then her joy that Dazzle had wanted to accompany her to her home, that he had stayed. How she had been so extremely sad, anchorless and lonely while he had been only gone for a few days. How they cuddled while watching the sunset and how she loved it. That she could only sleep with him around, with his scent surrounding her. How she always craved to spend time with him, how she hadn't minded that he had defeated her in a fight and all those other small things that flitted through her mind now. She knew how his skin felt, the colour of his eyes, the softness of his hair and so on.

Not a single one of her friendships was like that. Not even close.

The Shadow Priest sat next to her, staring at the horizon, too. But he sat too far away. The Legion Commander couldn't touch him, and that felt _wrong_ somehow. She sighed again. Because: really? How long did she think she could push the implications of things like that away?

She scooted closer and, with one arm around his shoulders, hugged him against her side. He tensed, but after a second or two, she could feel him relax. "You want to talk about it?" One of his hands lay on her hip and his head rested on her shoulder. Tresdin could feel the warmth of his body seeping through her clothes. She shook her head slightly. "No." There was nothing to talk about. She was a lesbian and he was male. There _couldn't_ be anything to talk about.

Almost automatically she began to play with his hair, ran her fingers through the softness of the long strands.

They were both more quiet than usual. Tresdin was lost in her thoughts and Dazzle left her enough space to think. They did everything as they did every evening, only today the troll hesitated when they decided to go to bed. "You want me to go?"

"No." Though she was still confused, didn't want to see the truth, she definitely didn't want to be alone. Didn't want to be without _Dazzle_.

The troll fell asleep within seconds, but for Tresdin it wasn't easy today. Only when Dazzle scooped closer in his sleep and hugged her so hard it almost hurt, was she able to let go of all her confused thoughts and sleep, too.

When she got up the next morning, having to extract herself from the embrace of the troll, it took a while for her brain to wake up. She was already dressed and just wanted to pull the blanket over Dazzle's shoulders so he wouldn't freeze, when she was hit by what had happened the day before. She froze, her hands on the blanket, her body bowed over the male in her bed. Her eyes were fixed on his face, where the paint was smeared from sleep.

She was torn.

With a curse she straightened and went into Dazzle's room to get the cloth with which he had cleaned his face yesterday. Standing at the bed and looking down at the troll, the cloth dripping a few drops of water onto the floor, she hesitated. She almost threw the cloth away again but right then the Shadow Priest hummed, like he had done the first time they had slept together, when she had stroked through his hair. His hands moved over the bed, as if he was searching for her and when he couldn't find her, he sighed and buried his nose in the bedding, taking a deep breath. Only then did he settled down and fall into a deeper sleep.

"Fuck." The word was only a breathless murmur. The troll, no matter that he was a male, was just too cute and she couldn't fucking resist him. She climbed over him onto the bed and sat down where she had been sleeping earlier. Before she put the wet cloth onto his skin, which would probably only shock him into waking up immediately, she began to stroke through his hair, then over his cheekbones down to his chin and up. She tangled her fingers into his hair and pulled at it. She wanted him to turn his head a little so she could see all of his face. He hummed again but followed the pull. She held his head with the hand buried in his hair so he couldn't move much. Then she began to wipe the paint from his face.

Her movements were slow and she watched as the colour of his skin appeared stroke for stroke. When she moved the cloth over his eyebrows, his lashes fluttered and he opened his eyes the tiniest bit. "What are you doing?" Dazzle's voice was a little raspy from sleep, the words slurred.

Tresdin didn't answer because she wasn't sure herself. She was acting out of some strange feelings she couldn't locate or name. It simply felt right to do this, to touch him.

Dazzle tried to move his head and froze when he realized that she had a tight grip on his hair. He was immediately wide awake and stared at Tresdin. He didn't do anything else, just watched her as she wiped the paint from his face. She tried to ignore his staring and avoided his gaze.

The paint was all gone now but she didn't want to stop.

With the hand in his hair, she pulled Dazzle's head to the side until his neck was exposed, so he wasn't facing her directly anymore. His breath caught but he followed her lead at once. And when she trailed the cloth down his throat, he closed his eyes and hummed softly. For a second, she stopped moving. Because she did know that humming by now and also knew what it meant. Did she really want to continue? When he was awake and it wasn't some sleepy response he gave because he didn't yet realize what she was doing or that it was she who was doing whatever she did?

Her eyes flickered down his body but the troll was still covered by the blanket and Tresdin could only assume how he responded to her touch.

When she looked up again, she noticed that Dazzle had turned his head back a little and was staring at her. "Maybe you should stop now." His voice was calm but something flitted over his features, so fast that Tresdin couldn't identify it.

Tresdin threw the cloth on the floor and cupped his cheek with her hand. She still wasn't sure if she wanted to continue whatever she had started but she had to touch him, had to feel his skin against hers. Then she saw it again and this time she recognized it. "Dazzle, why are you afraid? What are you afraid of? I won't hurt you."

One corner of his mouth lifted into a crooked smile. "I know you won't, not on purpose and not physically." He took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he continued before the Commander could ask him what he meant with 'not physically'. Had she hurt him mentally? "I'm afraid of what happens next. Afraid that you'll be shocked by what you are doing and leave me alone. Or that you'll realized I'm a male and will be disgusted with me. I'm afraid to lose your friendship. I'm afraid to lose _you_."

She wanted to say that those were things he didn't have to be afraid of because they wouldn't happen. But she wasn't completely sure. Tresdin pulled her hands away. She had acted more out of an impulse here but maybe she'd have to think about the implications of her touching him like that. And, more important, if she really wanted that.

His fears weren't unwarranted and the Legion Commander decided that she would think about what the troll had said. She wanted to stay where she was, wanted to continue whatever she had been doing, because she liked to touch Dazzle. And she liked even more how he reacted to her touches.

"I'm sorry."

Tresdin stared at the Shadow Priest. Then she laughed. "Whatever for?" Before he could answer, she shook her head. Smiling at the troll, she got up. "I'll go through my morning routine and think about what you said. I won't dismiss your fears as nothing. I want you to know, though, that I wouldn't have run away like yesterday. Would you make me breakfast, please? I haven't eaten, yet."

"Of course." The troll was smiling now, too, and the sight of him like that, without the paint, made Tresdin's heart flutter a little.

The routine, the familiar sequence of steps, was soothing and required only little concentration. So the Legion Commander forced herself to think about this morning. What Dazzle had said. And what she had done. At first it had been an impulse. But then, she had to admit that, she had liked it. She liked to touch Dazzle and she liked his responses to her. How his breath had caught, how he hummed when he liked something. How he had given himself into her hands without hesitation.

Yes, he was male, but maybe, just maybe she liked Dazzle as a person so much that his gender didn't matter. Maybe she liked him, the Shadow Priest. There had never before been anyone, not even a female, whom she had liked as much as she did the troll now. She had never trusted anyone as much, had never missed anyone as much, had never wanted to spent time with anyone as fucking desperately as she wanted with Dazzle. But could she really overlook the fact that he was male?

She didn't have to think about whether she liked him. It was undeniable. The only question remaining was: did she like him enough so him being male didn't bother her? The Legion Commander had to be sure when she touched him the next time. She had to be sure then, if the touch was as a friend or as something more. She didn't want to hurt Dazzle, didn't want to see fear in his eyes because he thought he might lose her. Which led to another important fact: if she decided to go for it, to touch him, to kiss him, _to have sex with him_ , because that would be what it would come to, she couldn't make it a one-night-stand, couldn't make him a fling of hers.

The Legion Commander had never had a real relationship. She had always avoided it because it wasn't worth the work one had with a partner. She could get sex when she wanted it but she didn't need the burden of a relationship. Only with Dazzle, it didn't seem like a burden at all.

He was already here, was living with her and he was no burden. Nothing of it was. And the only thing that was missing to make their relationship a _relationship_ was the sex. They were even sleeping together in the same bed for fucks sake!

The morning routine was almost finished. Tresdin realized that Dazzle was standing at the edge of the training area, that he was watching her. And she smiled as she went through the last steps. Her heart was lighter than it had been for days now. Because she knew what she wanted, now. She had denied her feelings for the troll, just because he was male. But there was no denying it any longer.

Maybe it wouldn't work, maybe having sex with a male would be horrible, but that wouldn't mean that she'd leave Dazzle. Should it be like that, they'd find a way to deal with it. Some way. Any way. And if they went back to the way their relationship was now, it was all right. Maybe they'd have to find some agreement to get along with their sexual needs at some point, but that wasn't something Tresdin wanted to think about now. Except for the fact that she felt anger rising when she thought about Dazzle going to another female for sex, she didn't want to think about it as long as there was no need for that.


	14. Chapter 13

Having finished the last movements, Tresdin walked towards the Shadow Priest. "What you do as a warmup every morning, the way you move, it's awesome." He smiled, the paint on his face making the smile bigger. He had left his staff somewhere by the house, as Tresdin had left her weapon by the door. Not too far away to reach it if it should be needed. Not that she wasn't deadly without a weapon, too, but some creatures were too dangerous to fight against without some sharp steel and some extended reach.

"Thank you."

He nodded and pointed towards their breakfast. "Want to eat?"

They sat down in silence. Tresdin wanted to address the subject of 'them' but didn't really know how. Dazzle wouldn't do it, would probably try to ignore what had happened. Because he was afraid of losing her by talking about it.

After a few minutes, he began to talk about something else. He asked her questions about her style of fighting, where she had learned it, how and so on. It was so natural to talk to him. It had seldom felt like that with anyone. She often talked about the wrong things, was too honest, to forward, too clipped, too ignorant, too insensitive and so on. Dazzle didn't care about any of those things. If she talked too little, he'd just talk more. If she said something insensitive, he'd just roll his eyes. If she growled instead of answering a question, he'd actually laugh!

Tresdin stared at Dazzle as he talked and moved his hands through the air to emphasize what he was saying. He was magnificent. When he caught her staring, he stopped midsentence and midmovement. Hands hanging in the air, he raised his brows. "What?"

And she knew. She just knew that it didn't matter that he was male. It didn't fucking matter! Because he was perfect, was perfect for her. He was what she needed in her life, what she had been missing forever. He complemented her. And she was done with denying her feelings for him just because he had a dick.

Not taking her eyes off the troll, she pushed the table between them to the side. As she crawled the two steps separating them forward, she could see the widening of Dazzle's eyes. He was frozen in his position, his arms still half raised, and he had a slightly panicked look on his face now.

But this time, this time Tresdin was sure. This time she wouldn't chicken out. She buried one hand in his hair at the back of his head so she could hold him in place should _he_ get the idea to chicken out. Her other hand was on the side of his face so she could tilt his head a little. For a split second she looked into his eyes. They were bright green and she could see the hint of fear in their depths.

"Don't be afraid." She would've liked to say more, to reassure him that everything was fine. But she didn't know how, couldn't find the words. And so she decided that what she had said had to be enough.

Tresdin closed her eyes. She felt Dazzle hair gliding against her fingers, so soft, and tightened her grip. She felt his skin against her palm and rubber her thumb over his cheek. She didn't see it but she knew she smeared his paint and she smiled a little.

Then she closed the remaining distance between them. The first brush of her lips against his was tentative, but he jerked underneath her hands. The second touch was more confident, so she could actually feel him. His lips were warm and soft, but at the same time firm. His whole body was tense and he didn't kiss her back for a long moment.

He was probably still afraid and so Tresdin waited, gave him time to adjust, her lips pressed against his, her thumb stroking idly.

On a sigh, all the tension left his body at once. His lips got even softer but now they pressed back. The Legion Commander sighed, too, relieved that he hadn't tried to pull away and thrilled that he gave himself over so willingly. She pulled harder on his hair, changed the angle of their kiss, and Dazzle hummed. This sound, so obviously stating his pleasure in her kissing him, was awesome.

Tresdin pushed Dazzle backwards, until he was lying on the ground with her half on top of him. She hadn't stopped kissing him but it was still all only lips against lips. When she pressed her body against his, he hummed again and now she began to explore his mouth. She nipped and sucked and when he opened his mouth, she took the invitation. Their tongues touched for the first time, and Tresdin moaned softly. Fuck, Dazzle felt _good_ underneath her.

His hands came to rest on her body, one on her shoulder the other on her lower back. And she realized that she had touched him more than once, had played with his hair, stroked his skin, but he had never touched her like that before. He pulled her closer, their upper bodies pressed tightly together. By now Tresdin was surrounded by Dazzle's scent. Her body slowly began to burn with desire as his hands wandered over her back and his tongue stroked against hers.

Tresdin had expected that she'd compare the troll male to the females she'd had sex with, but she didn't think about anyone except Dazzle for a single second. She was lost in him, how his body felt underneath her, his hair and skin against her hands, his mouth, his fingers moving over her back, trying to pull her impossibly closer, his scent all around her, the humming deep in his throat that spoke of his pleasure.

She broke the kiss with a gasp and buried her face in his neck, trying desperately to get air into her lungs. Her heart was pounding and her sex throbbing. She was on fire.

When she leaned on one arm to look down at him, he seemed to be as dazed as she was. His eyes were hooded, his mouth slightly open, his breath too fast and too harsh. He looked gorgeous. And Tresdin did what she had wanted to do for she didn't know how long. She moved her fingers over his face and then down his neck, smearing the paint on the way. She stopped when she met the edge of his shirt. "Off." Her voice was rough and the word sounded very much like a command.

Dazzle immediately started to shuffle and Tresdin leaned away to give him enough room to pull the shirt over his head. She had seen him half naked like that before but this was different. She let her gaze travel down his body, then up again. Then she put her fingers on the spot she had been forced to stop from the shirt. And began to smear the paint further down over his chest and stomach. She spread her fingers, taking in the shape of him, the feel of his skin against her palm. Her eyes followed the movement of her hand, getting more paint from his face and spreading it all over him. Tresdin smiled. And Dazzle snorted softly. "You think it's funny to smudge my whole body like that?"

"Fuck, yes."

"You'll get dirty, too." He smiled up at her. His breathing was still too fast but it wasn't as harsh as before. And the fear was gone from his eyes. He lay there, stretched out for her to do whatever she wanted. He didn't look like he'd take the lead anytime soon.

Tresdin grinned. And kissed him. She kept running one hand up and down his body, stroking him, smearing paint all over him. When Dazzle tugged at the hem of her shirt, she stopped just long enough to pull it off. She still had underwear on, something to secure her breasts. But it took a little more time to take it off and so she left it for the moment. Kissing Dazzle was better and she didn't want to take the time. She forgot everything around them, there was only her and him. She pressed closer again, her skin against his, not caring that she got paint all over herself now, too.

Dazzle shifted, turned his body towards her more and Tresdin froze. His erection pressed into her hip and she realized that she had completely forgotten that Dazzle was male. Slowly he shifted his hips away from her and when she looked down at him, the fear was back in his eyes. He knew what had made her stop.

"Fuck." That hadn't been her intention. Tresdin wasn't freaked out or something, was still as sure as before that she wanted this, that she wanted him. It was just that she had forgotten about him actually having a dick. And had just been reminded of the fact very straightforward.

Framing his face with her hands, she tried again to find the right words to reassure him. "Don't, I… it's okay." She gritted her teeth, frustrated about herself, about the reaction of her body and her inability to communicate what she wanted so say. She kissed him softly, then shook her head. "It's okay."

But since Tresdin didn't want to forget about Dazzle being a male again, she leaned on her arm. And looked down his body. She could see that he was hard underneath his skirt. She had seen enough dicks throughout her life but she had never touched one. Especially not an erect one. Her hand was still flat on Dazzle's stomach, so she trailed it lower and over the bulge under the cloth. His breath caught and when she squeezed a little, to test how hard it was, to get a feel for it, he hummed.

Her eyes flitted to his face to see if it was okay what she was doing, he had his eyes closed and he was breathing hard. The hand on his side was fisted in the material of his skirt and the other, on Tresdin's back, was twitching as if he wanted to pull her closer but didn't dare. He was smeared with paint all over and he already looked debauched, though they hadn't even really started.

Squeezing again, Tresdin smiled when he hummed and then lifted his hips a little, to chase the touch of her hand. It was strange to have this part of a male body in hand but it wasn't unpleasant. She was astounded, though, that it was that hard.

She began to open the laces of his skirt, when he caught her hand. "If you keep touching me, this won't take long. I'll probably come in seconds."

Frowning, Tresdin stopped and looked up. "Yeah, well, isn't that the goal? To come?"

"Of course, but not that fast."

"Why not? It doesn't matter. It is a sign of how much you like everything." Tresdin was definitely confused now. Yes, sometimes she liked to delay an orgasm but it took the edge off if one came fast the first time.

Dazzle blinked a few times at her, then he smiled. "Okay, I think I have to tell you something about males that might be good to know for you: we can't come again and again like some females can. We need time to recover."

"Females need time to recover, too."

Now he laughed. "Maybe. But your recovery times and ours lie wide apart."

Tresdin considered the information for a moment. Then she nodded. And continued to open the laces on his skirt. For a second, Dazzle's grip on her hand tightened, then he released it and fisted it in his skirt again. "Do whatever you want, then. I warned you."

"Noted." But she didn't care. And if it took a whole day for a male to come again, they had the time. They had nothing else to do! Tresdin wanted to explore him now, wanted to see, to touch, maybe taste. And she was nothing if not determined.

He was pink there, too, though the colour was a little lighter. Due to the lack of sunshine getting there, probably. Tresdin stared, then traced his cock with one finger from base to head. Circled it with her hand. And smiled at how soft the skin felt over the hardness. She let go again and Dazzle released the breath he had been holding. When she touched it again, it twitched. Tresdin took her time to explore thoroughly. She listened to Dazzle's breathing while she did so and watched the way his hand fisted the material of his skirt harder from time to time.

Of course she knew how males pleasured themselves, she wasn't stupid. And so, when she was satisfied with exploring, she circled him again. She could swear he had gotten even bigger and harder by now and wondered how big he could actually get. Tresdin moved her hand down and then up again, slowly. Dazzle groaned and her body shivered a little in answer, her sex pulsing.

"Kiss me, please."

Tresdin would've liked to watch her hand on him but kissing Dazzle was even better. He was restless underneath her, his kiss almost desperate. Then he put his hand over hers, tightening her grip on him and increasing the speed with which she had moved up and down. It really took only a few strokes before he broke the kiss and buried his head in the crook of her neck with a groan. He shuddered. And shuddered again, his cock pulsing in her hand, before his head fell back, his eyes closed, his body going limp. Tresdin shuddered, too, and her sex clenched.

Looking down, she could watch Dazzle getting softer and smaller in her hand. He had sprayed cum all over his stomach. Now he definitely looked debauched. And she thought she liked it. Tentatively, because she didn't know what one did with _that_ , she trailed one finger through the cum on his stomach, mixing it with the paint she had smeared there. It was warm and a little sticky. She put her palm in it and spread it over his chest.

"Ugh, really?" Dazzle looked at her through half lidded eyes, his nose scrunched. "Is this smearing me with things some kind of fetish of yours? I don't know if I like it. Especially not with cum. It's so nasty when it dries."

Tresdin wasn't sure. She stopped to move, her hand almost at his neck. She couldn't really think at the moment because Dazzle might have come but she hadn't and she felt as if she was centred on her throbbing sex. Nothing left of her to _think_. She just liked to touch him. Maybe she liked to mark him.

Dazzle laughed, then he pulled her down until she was flush against him again, her upper body pressed against his and his cum now all over her, too. She thought it was only fair. Then he kissed her. Tresdin couldn't help herself, she needed to come, too. She moaned and shifted her lower body closer, wanting to rub against him. It would probably be enough, just rubbing a little to get off.

Of course he didn't let her do that. He kept kissing her while he pushed her pants down together with her underpants. She hadn't even realized that he had opened the laces but he must have done so. He didn't get them far, just down to her knees, but that was good enough. He didn't play and explore like Tresdin had done and she was so fucking grateful for that. He slipped one finger inside of her, humming when he found her incredibly wet, and brushed his thumb over her clit.

It was as if she was hit by an explosion. She bit his lip and pressed her fingernails into his chest while her other hand tugged at his hair, hard. She tried to get closer, closer, rubbing her sex against his hand, her clit against his thumb as she rode through the orgasm. While her body was still shuddering, she sagged together, all strength leaving her. She tried to roll off Dazzle but when he held her close, she just kept lying there with her full weight on him. He didn't seem to mind and it was his own fault. She had tried not to collapse on top of him.

He stroked circles over her back while Tresdin slowly came down from her orgasmic high. When she felt strong enough to push her body up again, she knew what Dazzle had been talking about: the cum that was now spread between them, was icky as fuck. Grimacing, she went to get up. In no way did she want to keep lying in it but she got caught in her pants, which were still bunched at her knees. "Fuck!" She fell backwards on the ground.

Dazzle began to laugh. He leaned over her, his smile so very wide. His hair was ruffled, the paint on his face smeared but he looked completely happy, relaxed and content. Even though he had half dried cum on his chest and stomach. He kissed her, kind of lazy, while he began to scratch on the dried patches of nasty on her skin. Tresdin buried one hand in his hair and relaxed into the kiss. They kept kissing for quite some time before Dazzle leaned away. He smiled again and Tresdin, feeling unbelievably good despite being all sticky, smiled back. She would have loved to cuddle a little but first they had to get clean.

When they finally got up, Tresdin put her pants back on and Dazzle tied the laced of his skirt. Both articles were dirty and as soon as they were inside of the house, they took them off. Together, both only in their underwear, they readied a bath.

The Legion Commander owned a huge bathtub and she'd had a system installed some time ago to be able to fill it with hot water with relatively little effort. She only seldom used it but it was nice to have.

Steam rose from the hot water and Dazzle shivered. "I love a really hot bath. It is cold up here in the mountains." He shrugged out of his underpants, flung them to the side and dipped a hand into the water of the tub. He was fully naked now and Tresdin took the chance to look him over. His muscles flexed as he climbed into the tub and his skin got darker, more like violet, with the heat. He was gorgeous and she stared until he sat down in the bathtub and most of his body was under the water. Then she removed her underwear. It took way longer than the troll had needed, but she had to take off the cloth that held her breasts and that was an art in itself. Of course, just as she had watched him, he was now watching her. When she looked up, he smiled. "You are absolutely awesome. I swear I have never seen a woman as breath-taking as you are."

And, fuck it, Tresdin blushed. She continued to take her underwear off and hoped he didn't see it. But she was definitely pleased that he found her awesome and breath-taking.

Fully naked, she approached the tub. Dazzle was still staring, looking a bit dazed. "Oh wow, what you hide underneath all this armour." He sounded a little breathless.

Normally Tresdin didn't think about her appearance very much. It was all more about utility and safety. Maybe a little to impress and scare her opponents. She thought her body, without any armour, was too scrawny for a warrior, much less the fact that she was fairly normal. Normal breasts, normal stomach, normal waist, normal arse, normal legs. Even her face was normal in her opinion. With normal brown hair and equally normal brown eyes. But the way Dazzle was staring at her, it made her _feel_ awesome and breath-taking.

She slipped into the bathtub and gasped at the heat of the water. "It's fucking hot!"

Dazzle laughed and leaned back. He seemed to be fine even though Tresdin began to sweat and pant after only a minute, due to the heat. She did get used to it after some time. They had both been silent for those minutes but now the troll began to talk. He told a story about hot baths and trolls while the Commander listened and relaxed.

The bathtub was big enough so they both fit in, but they had to bend their legs to do so. They sat across from each other and their legs were touching. That way they could look at each other but about halfway through the story, the Legion Commander decided that she'd rather touch than look. So she scooted closer and squeezed herself next to the Shadow Priest. She slung one arm around his shoulders and put one leg over his to sit more comfortable.

Dazzle stopped for a second with his story but when she had settled, he continued. Tresdin sighed. Much better so sit next to him like that. Now she could touch him, play with his hair with one hand while stroking his arm, stomach and chest with the other. She rubbed her cheek over the side of his head and took a deep breath.

They stayed in the bathtub for a long time. They washed each other, even the paint from Dazzle's face.

The troll took advantage of her being so relaxed to explore her body from head to toes. He brought her to orgasm a second time, after which Tresdin found out that the troll had had quite enough time to recover.

They left the tub well sated and relaxed. They put only their underwear on and Dazzle took a blanket with them outside on which they lay down. It was afternoon and the sun was high up in the sky. The troll snuggled closer as the Commander stared into the blue sky. He rubbed his palm over her stomach while she played with a strand of his hair.

"How do you feel?" Tresdin could feel Dazzle's breath stroking over her skin as he spoke.

"Good." Why wouldn't she? "Why do you ask?"

"I just wanted to make sure you are fine. Since you were with a male for the first time. Just wanted to check if it was okay for you."

Tresdin thought about what she wanted to say to that. They hadn't had sex yet, had only made the other come with their hands. It had all been more than okay so far but it could still change. The fact that it had been that good with the troll, it was calming. Even if the sex would be a disaster, this, what they had done so far, no one and nothing could take from them. She didn't want to think about how sex with a male was and how she might not like it. And it wasn't necessary. She was sure, now more than before, that it would all work out just fine. She felt good, unbelievably good, and to have a half-naked Dazzle in her arms right now, to cuddle with him and touch him as much as she wanted, was the best thing _ever_. It felt _right_.

She turned them over so the troll was lying on the ground and she was half on top of him. She smiled down at him. He hadn't put his paint back on and he looked strangely vulnerable without it. His face was way more expressive and things he might be able to hide behind some paint were clearly visible now. "You don't have to be afraid. I won't leave you." She kissed him, slow and full of the promise to stay with him. He was the first male she had ever been intimate with but he would also forever be the only one. And because she sucked with words, she put all those feelings into the kiss she gave him, into the way she touched him. And hoped he understood it. Contentment, ease, joy, satisfaction, bliss, pleasure, delight, and so much more she couldn't even name in her head, much less put them into words. And love.

It might have taken her forever to realize it, but she knew it now: though he was male and she was a lesbian, Tresdin loved Dazzle with all her heart.

And since she might be bad with communication but was nonetheless honest all the time and spoke what was on her mind, she told him. Saying three tiny words could be hard but while looking into the pale green eyes of this wonderful troll, it was strangely easy.

"Dazzle, I love you. And I won't leave you."

The smile she got in answer was the most perfect thing she had ever seen. And it chased the last remaining shreds of fear from his features.


End file.
